June 9 Oakwood Cemetery

So today we started our big adventure. We started off the day like normal, reading blogs, explaining what we are doing for the day, explaining our new project; you know the norm. We left campus to go to the Oakwood Cemetery and the Earl memorial crematorium. We ran into a scheduling delay, yet again. It just so happens that the time we were going to visit the crematorium, a Hindu Cremation ceremony was going on. Because of the religion, the remains have to be taken care of within twenty four hours. So what did we do? we rode around in the van for an hour and a half. I regret to say that the entire van ride I was nauseous and car sick. I don't think it was Michael's driving, I think it was just the car ride in general. This usually happens to me when I don't drive. Anyway, on our drive we stopped and looked at a few graves. One of them was Uncle Sam's grave. It was nothing too special;  I thought it would be much more interesting, maybe a little bigger and stand out more. The only thing that really stood out was the size of the stone and even that wasn't that impressive. We learned that Andor doesn't like Uncle Sam and Sharon doesn't like the Daughters of the American Revolution. I understand where they are coming from, the whole idea is kind of over played, but it's okay I guess.

Uncle Sam's Grave

A Mausoleum

 Our assignment for the day was to look for a certain symbol and look up the meaning. I chose to look up the Celtic Cross, as shown in the picture below. The Celtic Cross is an ancient Irish tradition. The cross in the picture below is a high christian cross with a Celtic design. The cross as a grave marker came back from the medieval times, where it was used more as a public monument. It is believed that the cross was introduced by Saint Patrick or possibly Saint Declan during their time trying to convert the pagan Irish. It was claimed that Patrick combined the symbol of Christianity with the sun cross, to give it the idea of the importance of the cross and the life giving properties of the sun. Some other interpretations claim that placing the cross on top of the circle represents Christ's supremacy over the pagan sun. I really like the idea of the Celtic Cross because I come from an Irish background (yes i have a little bit of everything in me), though I do take my heritage pretty seriously.

Celtic Cross

Russell Sage's Mausoleum 

Earl Memorial Crematorium

When the funeral finished, we got to take a little tour through the crematorium. I have been to this place before, but it never ceases to amaze me. The inside of the building is stunning, it has Tiffany stained glass windows, a ton of marble, and gorgeous carvings throughout the building. Something new that we got to experience on this trip, was going upstairs where the family would typically wait for the guests to arrive, before descending the steps and joining their guests for the service. Another thing that we got to look at was one of the ovens was open. I have never seen the inside of one of these, so that was pretty cool, even if it is a little weird. I don't mind admitting that I'm weird. One thing that I do find weird though, is the thought of having a wedding here. Yes it has been done before, though I'm not sure why anyone would want to get married in a crematorium. I would think that it was bad luck or something. Anyway, when we got back to Sage, we ate our boxed lunches. After lunch we went back to the Rensselear County Historical Society to do some research for our projects. We got to take pictures of our artifacts and do the research that we need to make the labels. That didn't take as long as expected, so when we were done me and Krista took a ride to Walmart because smart me didn't bring my sleeping bag or a sheet. I bought a five dollar sheet which was pretty cool because now I have a sheet for the next time we stay somewhere. I drove down to Newburgh. The brave souls that they are, Michelle and Krista rode with me. Shocker, I know. We had a lot of fun on the way down. We listened to music, sang, and joked. We even raced Michael a little in the van. In the end I let him get in front of me. We did slower than I usually do on the thruway, but that's okay. We still made it here alive. Once we arrived at Mt. St. Mary's college in Newburgh, we got our room assignments, and unpacked. We then ventured off to Alexis Diner where we ate dinner. After dinner we stopped at Price Chopper so we could buy snacks and such for the rooms, though tonight I'm pretty sure that we were all full from dinner there will be no snacking. We got back to the dorms, and me and Krista immediately got a visiter. That's right Michelle came in our room to hang out with us and do our blogs. All in all it was a great day. I'm exhausted, but I think I will make it through. Until Tomorrow....

Bench in the Crematorium


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_cross