I walked 47 miles of barbed wire
This week's been so hectic already that I'm taking ideas from Michelle's Spells, with nods to Wichita-Lineman and everybody else, even throwing in Johnny Cash, vodka and graveyards as necessary.
The postcard picture above is not of the U.S.-Mexico border, but before we know it, it could pass for such. Nor is it an image of some crafty plan to keep those fierce Canadians from beating down our doors. It's the Berlin Wall, the Iron Curtain, the one that was torn down back in 1989. It came to me not because I saw the other side of it when it existed (I did), but because Michelle's graveyard post made me think of the Bo Diddley song with the lines Tombstone hand and a graveyard mine, I'm just 22 and I don't mind dyin.' And Jim, if you know George Thorogood and the Destroyers' version of "Cocaine Blues," you probably know his cover of this one, too. The song, "Who Do You Love," starts with lines that make up today's post title. And Sheila, I do a little bit of both -- draw from memory, but augment with information at my fingertips (I'm a librarian much of the time, so am surrounded by books and computers and databases of all kinds).
I like graveyards, too, for some reason: cemeteries, graves, obelisks, pyramids, burial mounds, barrows, memorials, markers, crypts, mausoleums, ossuaries, battlegrounds -- all fascinating places, hallowed ground. I've never been to Raymond Carver's grave, but I've seen some wildly decorated ones: shrines for Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde in Paris, for example, for Arthur Rimbaud in Charleville, for Jack Kerouac in Lowell, even one for Daniel Boone in Frankfort, Kentucky. I guess it's nice to know they actually lived on the same Earth as we do, even if things have changed a little in the meantime. Know Brand New People by Anne Lamott? That's the kind of sentiment I'm talking about.
There's a great source for looking up the final resting place for all sorts of people (and Wichita-Lineman may have used this same site):
http://www.findagrave.com/
This is where you can learn that Janis Joplin and Marvin Gaye ended up in the same place -- the Pacific Ocean. And so on. By the way, Johnny Cash and June Carter are buried in Hendersonville, Tennessee; Bo Diddley, though, he's still alive!
Happy hunting grounds! Don't forget to add the vodka. . . . .
4 comments:
Vodka is good as is JC
There is just something appealing about grave sites. I just went to Mackinaw Island over the weekend and one of the most fascinating things I seen was the black hearse carriage. It sits in a carriage museum and is still used today to transport the dead to their final resting place.
It would be a sight to see, black horses and a ringing bell, step aside, death and his final dance.
I'm game on visiting Johnny Cash and getting a grave rubbing on some newsprint. I've been to James Dean's grave. It’s accompanied by lipstick kisses and Winston cigarettes.
A very fine post.
Hey Mahalia and W-L,
Thanks for the comments. The black hearse carriage -- now there's an image. Cool on the Jimmy Dean and prospective Johnny Cash graveside visit. And then, of course, there's Graceland, Taking Care of Business in a Flash!
You're absolutely right, Erik. I'm a big fan of George. Wasn't he at one time a minor league baseball player? --Jim
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