My Day of the Dead

I'd been wanting to visit Tallahassee's oldest graveyard, Old City Cemetery, for a while, and I decided that Halloween afternoon would be a good time to pay my respect to Tallahassee's historic past.

It's eleven acres, which makes for a satisfying walk winding in and out of the rows of tombstones. I saw the earliest grave -- a tourist who, according to his marker, was visiting Florida for his health, and was subsequently buried here in 1829. Union and Confederate soldiers are buried in this cemetery, along with Tallahassee society ladies, African-American civic leaders, and a slew of yellow fever victims from an outbreak in 1841.

My favorites were the weird and fanciful Gilded Age monuments.

The raised coffins are designed for a swampy Florida landscape.

As the sun started to set and the shadows grew longer, the cemetery got creepier. I wished I hadn't been reading that book of Gothic tales.

The pamphlet I picked up -- "A Walking Tour of Old City Cemetery" -- assured me that there is no resident ghost.

But there is a witch, and this is where she is buried.

The pamphlet denies it, but says that the rumors about Elizabeth Budd Graham won't die. It occurred to me that Halloween might not have been the best time to visit the cemetery after all.

Yes, definitely time to leave.