4/15/14

Man, oh man was this week a busy one! From continuous paperwork on Wednesday to the lecture on Saturday, it was never a dull moment! (Also I apologize for the lack of new pictures, I was in the zone for this week and forgot to take pictures. Thus the pictures I will be using are unique things I have come across this semester.)

As always, Wednesday was more paperwork and I think there is a real shot of me finishing the Union Cemetery inscriptions tomorrow if I keep my nose to the grindstone.

Friday was full of creating slides and scurrying around to make everything work before the lecture, because when else would I create slides except the day before they’re needed? They turned out pretty good, with just a few revisions that were needed after I left work for the day. By Friday, I was becoming such a nervous wreck with the lecture since that was part of my internship requirement for UCF.

Saturday was an interesting day for upon arrival at Debary Hall I discovered that a wedding was taking place and so the Lemonade Lecture was moved to the theatre, where the moving seats are located in order to provide a more unique experience when viewing their introductory film about the history of the house. There was a smaller attendance for the lecture, but I can understand, but those who did attend were curious about cemetery preservation and asked very intuitive questions. During me section of the lecture, which focused on creating awareness of cemeteries and their need to be preserved, I know I talked too fast nor did I enunciate nearly as well as I should have. Sadly, this nervous ticks were due at the last minute nerves got the best of me, which is funny since last week I was at a Showcase Event and speaking there was a breeze. 

I can tell that I will have an intertwining career around cemeteries since I am starting to question about the history and state of cemeteries located in near the town I live in. In addition, I am going on a vacation in the Caribbean soon and I am curious if there are any cemeteries that would be accessible to where I will be, for I would love to see how cemeteries are taken care of and also the different looks and iconography that may be prevalent throughout.  I have finally accepted my fate that I am a taphophile (someone who likes cemeteries in a none creepy way). 

3/25/14

As this month is wrapping up, I have to start preparing for the end of my internship as well. I cannot believe how quickly this internship has gone by. It feels as if just yesterday I went out on my first field visit!

            Wednesday included working on finishing touches on the histories of a few cemeteries I’ve been working on and comparing inscription found by Daphne Brown in the early seventies with more recent findings. I’m hoping I can have the few remaining cemeteries I’m assigned to complete in the next two weeks or so.

Mother of Willie Eldridge

Willie Eldridge-died 1877, moved to Oakdale in 1881

            Friday was interesting for we only visited one cemetery and that was the Oakdale Emporia Cemetery. It’s out by a multitude of ferneries and allowed for a very visually appealing and fascinating drive. The cemetery is now run by just one man, who has been actively working to cleanup the excess of trees/shrubs/bush in the surrounding area to help the cemetery expand. Which we are all grateful for since it helped to solve a mystery of the location of the two oldest burials. Daphne Brownell marked it as outside of the fenced area of the cemetery, but when searches that are more recent have occurred, the burials have not been found around the perimeter. So on Friday we were tentative of what we would find, but the aforementioned man was able to show us to a newly cleared area wherein laid the two oldest burials in the cemetery. Before the clearing, it would have been basically in the woods and incredibly difficult to find if one didn’t know where to truly look. I thought it was really exciting to see how well preserved the headstones appear after having been unwatched for such a long period of time.

Willie's footstone

            After the visit to the Oakdale Emporia Cemetery, we talked about our internship presentation, which UCF history department has as a mandatory aspect of interning. It has worked out that we will be presenting April 12^th at the DeBary Hall for a Lemonade Lecture. It’ll be about an hour or so with my boss, my co-intern, and myself presenting about different aspects of preservation in regards to cemeteries. Though I am a little nervous about it, I am glad that this is more of an informal setting and by that point I will be comfortable with presenting research due to the Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence  where my friends and I  will be presenting research from another project. April is going to be a crazy month and I am still trying to come to terms to the fact that this semester and internship is almost over. It has been a fascinating journey and I’m excited to see where this last month leads.