stevenpiziks | More Graveyard Oddities

It's not unusual for a tombstone to have a hollow space inside it. You put mementos of the dead in the hollow space, which is then sealed up. However, tombstones are far from permanent. They quickly become weathered. The earth beneath them shifts and they tip over (which is why you sometimes see tombstones on the ground facing up--and getting slowly covered over by grass). Sometimes they're vandalized. And if the family isn't around to ensure they're repaired, the graves fall into disrepair. It happens a lot, really. A city-run graveyard doesn't have the money to maintain the markers--they just mow and trim.

Anyway, when Darwin and I were at the graveyard, we found another oddity. I noticed it when I took this photo:

You can see it peeking out at the bottom of the spire.

What the heck?

Darwin didn't want me to touch it. It was clearly new, not 19th century.

However, inside . . .

A moldy, old pair of track shoes? Who would stick a pair of track shoes into a memorial cache? Weird. I found a trash can and tossed them out.