Feeling stuffed, we hopped on the 19th-century era streetcar -- which still had wooden seats and complicated-looking mechanical levers for the conductor -- to the Garden District for a little tour. Turned out we were the only ones on it.
First stop was Lafayette No. 1 Cemetery -- the above-ground "city of the dead"-style cemetery you see in a lot of fantastical thrillers set in the South. (Movies like, apparently, "Double Jeopardy" with Ashley Judd and "Deja Vu" with Denzel Washington. Oh, also "Easy Rider"!)
Our tour guide, Dave Roberts, explained how the family crypts worked: There are two slots for one coffin each, top and bottom. When the next person in the family dies, the grave workers come and take the bottom coffin out and dump the bones in the pit underneath and stick the new one in. That's how, like, 20 people can fit in one little crypt!
See, here is an abandoned crypt whose front panel has fallen off or been removed -- you can see the top and bottom compartments, plus the pit o' bones underneath! (There were no bones that I could see in this one.)
1 comment:
The two slot system is really creepy. What a horrible job to have - taking out and dumping the bones each time!!
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