Violet at the Necropolis

READER ADVISORY: This post has pictures of a baby in a graveyard and some jokes about graves and babies.

Today, Violet and I visited Mountain View Cemetery here in Oakland, one of the absolutely coolest places around. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, right after he designed Central Park (if you've been to New York City, Central Park is the big green area behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art). It is absolutely beautiful in a decrepit/shabby chic type of way and is filled with tons of famous people, like a Stanford or two and the Ghirardelli family, of chocolate fame.

My idea was that Violet could walk around on the grass and climb on people's mausoleums (mausoleumae?) and have a generally good time. However, the grounds of Mountain View have seen better days, and there is scarcely a smooth walkway or flat expanse of grass in the entire place. Instead, roads are crumbling, stairs are moss-covered and tilted and most graves are on steep slopes. The effect of the whole place is fantastic for memoralizing dead people, but it's not such a good play area. Put that one in Olmstead's (admittedly small) Failures column.

So, I decided to get a little weird and shoot Violet next to the tombstone of Elmer Wilson, a 4 year old who died in the early 20th century. It says "Our Baby" on the stone and indicates that the child is "A Native of Oakland," and I thought that despite the ninty or so years of age difference and the whole dead/alive thing, he and Violet had a few things in common.

The situation on the hill with the stones was precarious, so I brought Violet down to a relatively flat area, where the tombstones are embedded in the ground. Here, Violet is maintaining a flower arrangement.

A little later, Violet was joined by the ghost of Elmer Wilson. Just kidding! That's actually Eliza B Van de Water, who brought her mom to come share a little playdate in the cemetery. Since she's so young, one need not worry about her falling or tripping or anything, so anyplace is basically as good as any other. She appeared to enjoy herself in that "I'm not completely miserable" way very young children do.

Just a caveat to those who think this whole expedition is completely beyond the Pale: Mountain View has been around for decades and is considered by many to be akin to a public park here in Oakland. People regularly jog, ride their bikes, picnic and even walk their dogs through here. I mean, at least Violet and I had our legs covered! I did think a few times that it would be nice when I kick the bucket and am buried in the ground somewhere if some kids would come and play on my grave every now and then.