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- Aug 2, 2019
The local newspaper said online that there'd be reenactors from the 54th Massachusetts at the Juneteenth commemorations at West Street Cemetery in Amherst, Massachusetts, and there were. Unfortunately, that was the week BEFORE Juneteenth, and so when people showed up the week OF Juneteenth, there was no ceremony, so we just chatted, bonded, and took photos.
West Street Cemetery is somewhat famous for being the cemetery where Emily Dickinson is buried. In fact, she grew up in a house abutting the cemetery grounds, although that house was torn down and there's now a gas station where that house stood (her adult home is now owned by Amherst College and a museum). Amherst Academy, where she attended school, is now the parking lot next to the Amherst Cinema. As a former English major and Amherst resident, I can do a reasonably good dead poets tour of the town, which also counted Robert Frost among its residents for a while (reports are that he was a grouch, but would go in and talk to classes at Amherst High; I'm told that if you really wanted to **** him off, you asked him if "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" was about death, Frost would insist that it was just a poem about a guy pausing on his way somewhere in the woods)
The cemetery is also known locally as the place where the high school students will go to fight. You get suspended for fighting on campus, so if you're going to fight, you meet up across the street at the cemetery after school so that it's not a school issue. I once stepped between two girls who were squaring off, only to have one of them point to the other and yell "I'll see YOU at the cemetery at 2:35!" Then she pointed at me and yelled, "And I'll see YOU there at 2:40!" (I believe my response was, "What did I do?") She was showboating, of course, but I still find it pretty funny.
Anyway, there are quite a few CW graves here, along with veterans from wars going back to the revolution. There's also an African American section of the cemetery with a few Colored Troops. The descendant of one of them curates the exhibit of the marble memorial slabs with the names of every Amherst man who served, which is located in the basement of the Bangs Center, about a block away. There's a separate thread on that.
I have no idea what the story is behind the modern looking monument to "Five Amherst Unknown Civil War Veterans."
There is also a nice mural on the history of Amherst on the back of an apartment building facing the cemetery. It recreates the one that was destroyed when they tore down the funky little shops that were there in order to build that monstrosity.
The Mural on the History of Amherst, Massachusetts
Emily Dickinson, looking angelic in front of a flower. The woman holding a cat to the right of her is her sister, Lavinia, an avowed cat lover, who had cats with names like Fluffy, Puffy, and Drummy Doodles. (She may have missed the poetry gene) Emily hated cats and talked about the appeal of seeing the southbound end of a northbound cat. I never did like Emily, much.
Robert Frost, seated, and I'm blanking on the name of the man standing behind him, but he was also a poet.
The colonial looking dude is Daniel Webster, another local resident. The background is buildings from Amherst College.
West Street Cemetery is somewhat famous for being the cemetery where Emily Dickinson is buried. In fact, she grew up in a house abutting the cemetery grounds, although that house was torn down and there's now a gas station where that house stood (her adult home is now owned by Amherst College and a museum). Amherst Academy, where she attended school, is now the parking lot next to the Amherst Cinema. As a former English major and Amherst resident, I can do a reasonably good dead poets tour of the town, which also counted Robert Frost among its residents for a while (reports are that he was a grouch, but would go in and talk to classes at Amherst High; I'm told that if you really wanted to **** him off, you asked him if "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" was about death, Frost would insist that it was just a poem about a guy pausing on his way somewhere in the woods)
The cemetery is also known locally as the place where the high school students will go to fight. You get suspended for fighting on campus, so if you're going to fight, you meet up across the street at the cemetery after school so that it's not a school issue. I once stepped between two girls who were squaring off, only to have one of them point to the other and yell "I'll see YOU at the cemetery at 2:35!" Then she pointed at me and yelled, "And I'll see YOU there at 2:40!" (I believe my response was, "What did I do?") She was showboating, of course, but I still find it pretty funny.
Anyway, there are quite a few CW graves here, along with veterans from wars going back to the revolution. There's also an African American section of the cemetery with a few Colored Troops. The descendant of one of them curates the exhibit of the marble memorial slabs with the names of every Amherst man who served, which is located in the basement of the Bangs Center, about a block away. There's a separate thread on that.
I have no idea what the story is behind the modern looking monument to "Five Amherst Unknown Civil War Veterans."
There is also a nice mural on the history of Amherst on the back of an apartment building facing the cemetery. It recreates the one that was destroyed when they tore down the funky little shops that were there in order to build that monstrosity.
The Mural on the History of Amherst, Massachusetts
Emily Dickinson, looking angelic in front of a flower. The woman holding a cat to the right of her is her sister, Lavinia, an avowed cat lover, who had cats with names like Fluffy, Puffy, and Drummy Doodles. (She may have missed the poetry gene) Emily hated cats and talked about the appeal of seeing the southbound end of a northbound cat. I never did like Emily, much.
Robert Frost, seated, and I'm blanking on the name of the man standing behind him, but he was also a poet.
The colonial looking dude is Daniel Webster, another local resident. The background is buildings from Amherst College.
Bringing the