Thinking of taking a break ? The PTN board will be meeting in  Mobile Feb
12-15
Pyrate has been working crypts there and would love to give you and the Mrs
the "Tour" of the Gulf coast  68deg and sunny today(jan16) it was a beach day
but we were working the dead

Glimpse of the Dead


The marble crypt cover had disintegrated and collapsed into a heap upon the
poor fellow breaking his window pane coffin and dislodging his skull.
Not that it bothered him all that much ; but this wasn't Judgment Day and we
didn't want to give any false hopes at redemption;
Our job is not redemption but salvation;(of the stone that is ).
We leave the hard work for the fellow upstairs ; and if you don't buy that
then just think of  life as just so much compost.

The area is not new to death; Spaniards French English and lastly a group of
unfettered un educated rabble known as Americans displaced a multitude of
tribes of Indians whose names numbered in the hundreds and whose territory
extended from the Smokeys to Texas.
Their oyster shell middens were Americas first light houses and could be seen
from well out to sea . It was also the lime quarry for the early colonials to
make the first mortars from so very few of them still exist in their entirety.

Our friend below is French, well lets just say we think so.
Window pane coffins were all the rage from about 1880- to 1900  so he is most
likely third generation French

The  bright Gulf sun splashes  light through   the tombs  tight opening  with
a  pulsating  laser like effect on the deceased  made by  the  swaying of
palms overhead.
Inside the  interior air of the crypt  is fetid with  hanging  dust of moist
plaster and airborn particulate of  wood and rotting remains.
The bones and skull flash at you from the intense sun.overhead as bugs roam
freely through the debris.

We draw cards from an old battered playing deck to see who crawls in ;
the winner makes coffee the looser ....works the bones.
We lay the playing  cards from an old battered deck out on the far end of the
crypt and crowd around .

Dazzling white sand is underfoot as we deal cards off of and unto the cover
stone.
The day is clear and very mild for mid January;
up north we hear they are freezing

Song birds of finch and Blue bird serenade from cedar and live oak dripping
with  Spanish moss .They dart merrily from tree to tree as pink sea clouds
drift lazily overhead. .

Each man gets two cards down as his own   and then  four goes into the
common pot one at a time  face up (called the flop)  .. We play for one dollar each
The winner gets the dollars but has to make coffee
the looser works the bones.

"Its your go Paco"
Paco; an experienced foreman is  half Mexican with piercing good looks and
jet black hair decorated in whale bone flashes a smile that glints a gold
tooth.and the   good luck of a Romeo.
.The last card down called "the river" does nothing for him
No luck for Romeo today

"3 duces "   he announces when called   and lays three worn cards across the
white of the marble top.
Down below;
The mouth of the skull lays open as if to speak;  they never do....
 but this time .
a fat black roach scurrys from an eye socket to find shelter under a rotten
mass of wooden decay.. not happy he moves again  for the green pastures  under
 what appears to be the  clavical bone .

Such sites sober the men and they momentarily step back.
Any personal articles  of the decesed lay in a heap of rusted coffin metal
and decayed wood adjacent the arms;; a cross here, a silver hinge there,
all a scattered jumble interwoven with badly tattered fabric that once was
the shiny black suit of death.

The remains are in remarkably good condition, much better than the last one
who sat in 3 ft of water but that was yesterday today is better.

The  masons step back but won't abandon their cards  They are good fellows
who suffer the foibles and weakness of most men .
They regroup in their dusty  overalls  as Paco laughs heartlily  at their
superstitious insecurity from his perch over the crypt.

But superiority in cards  is red meat for the common man , with renewed
courage  they  close  for the kill on Paco
Ben(aka Dog)  dramatically drops a straight and Mark(aka Tiny ) follows with
a full house

 The tension draws with me as to who climbs in
I look to Paco looking crestfallen like a looser  ...unleashing false hope
before   smileing  widely
"Read and weep ' . I call ..and thus lay a crude flush in black dog eared
spades  atop the other cards  .
Everyone laughs including so it appears  the skull

Paco shrugs ;  then quickly and reverently crosses himself, lights  the stub
of his  cigar and  lowers himself into the crypt  ....(cont)

Come on down ........   Pyrate

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>