Passage #438: 24 January 2018
Whistling Past, then Paving Over
This week, we continue our series of classic Passage rides with one of our "historical" routes, Whistling Past, then Paving Over. For the original ride, it was raining, and there was high attrition, and as with so many rainy, sparsely-attended affairs, it always seemed like the dead deserved better. I had even planned to repeat it as a bonus ride back in November, when it would have been a bit more topical (Day of the Dead and all that). But of course, death is always topical, and presumably the dead will not be offended if we (re-)visit them a couple months past the designated day.
ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
It is said that the dead remain with us in spirit, so long as they are remembered. And noble, sentimental creatures that we are, we certainly do our best to make this so - building monuments, telling stories and simply thinking thoughts that keep those spirits with us.
However, as construction crews regularly discover in a somewhat less noble fashion, the dead remain with us in body as well, long after their lives have been largely forgotten. As more worldly concerns intrude, all those memories and monuments may get misplaced, displaced, and shuffled around, but the remains... well, they remain.
And all this is so terribly inconvenient, having the dead popping up unexpectedly at inopportune moments, but when those bones finally do come back from their misplacement, displacement and shuffling around, we may find that they at least have some new stories to tell.
A dozen cemeteries (four former and eight current), with at least a little bit of history for each. The route this week is not especially long (25-ish miles), but we've got a lot of stopping to do, so let's leave on time, eh? Yes? Yes? Excellent.
