tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post4860680644414299520..comments2024-03-28T11:28:51.868-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/28/24: South American Diary #2: City of the Dead—Recoleta CemeteryNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-79629412138815773242020-04-09T14:00:44.486-05:002020-04-09T14:00:44.486-05:00Don't speak for all Amer. Kbagel. Many do know...Don't speak for all Amer. Kbagel. Many do know about culture, history, politics of places and without even having had chance to travel there.privatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18413982311699012802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-51455827189341163192019-04-11T10:37:02.987-05:002019-04-11T10:37:02.987-05:00I'm remembering our trip to Argentina several ...I'm remembering our trip to Argentina several years ago and, as you did, feeling keenly how ignorant we Amerixans can be about other countries and culture. You associated the country only with Nazis; I assumed it's heritage was Spanish, because of course South America. Imagine my idiot-surprise to learn the city's population has a substantial *Italian* heritage -- ergo their love of Opera and the beautiful Opera House (Neil, you *did* see the Opera Hoise, please tell me you did?), all the pizza and gelato joints, etc.kbagelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02142518251162476645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-48659565388848951272019-04-10T12:13:52.391-05:002019-04-10T12:13:52.391-05:00Yes, he grew up in Brooklyn, which a lot of people...Yes, he grew up in Brooklyn, which a lot of people are unaware of. Capone even lived on Navy Street as a kid, near the old Navy Yard, where he and his pals used to steal from the government.<br /><br />My grandfather is buried in Waldheim, near a family of four who all died on Christmas Day of 1908. Used to creep me out as a kid, and I always wanted to know what happened. After a lot of online searching, I finally found the answers, fifty-plus years later. <br /><br />An immigrant Jewish storekeeper came home late on Christmas Eve, from his West Side grocery, and hung his coat on the fixture for a gas jet. He went to bed. The pipe broke. He and his wife and their two daughters never woke up. But his kinfolk must have been rather prosperous, as their above-ground monument is the size of a compact car--something rarely seen in most Jewish cemeteries.<br /><br />So sad and tragic. At least I now know the story. As a teen, I used to envision such lurid scenarios...like murder-suicide or their deaths being the result of a neighbor's Christmas tree fire. I was a weird kid. Still am.Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-14309688162935672402019-04-10T08:52:51.507-05:002019-04-10T08:52:51.507-05:00Tracking my roots I visited many of the Chicago ar...Tracking my roots I visited many of the Chicago area Catholic cemeteries where my ancestors are buried. While I have no belief in an afterlife it gives me comfort to visit the dead, remember their stories or make overdue apologies. Graceland is a better appreciated after making the family rounds. Driving through Mt. Carmel slowly brings the Prohibition Era into the present. I would take different slow routes when visiting grandparents and the notorious names on the elaborate crypts never seem to end. Take the proper path and near the exit you will probably encounter a car or three always parked in one spot. It is the Capone family plot where last time I encountered two New Yorkers smoking big Havanas. Not family, I asked hoping for stories, but just guys from Al's old neighborhood paying a visit. The grass below the flush grave marker is worn to bare earth from his many visitors, and these two had nothing bad to say about him. I didn't share my opinions and as that was my first time stopping at that spot, I feel better taking a different route after that day. JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08613528527379198505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-84605632433842710182019-04-09T23:29:51.325-05:002019-04-09T23:29:51.325-05:00Graves cannot be dug in New Orleans because it is ...Graves cannot be dug in New Orleans because it is so swampy and mostly below sea level, so there are similar cemeteries in the Big Easy. But their tombs are much smaller and farther apart. The corpses eventually decompose, and the bones fall to the bottom. This method of disposal is then repeated over the course of succeeding generations. One of the cemeteries was used for the notorious acid-trip scene in the film "Easy Rider"...look for a very young Karen Black in the role of a prostitute.<br /><br />I was lucky enough to be there one Mother's Day...one of only two days a year when the gates are thrown open to the public and they can mosey along the avenues of the dead. The other occasion is on All Saints' Day, November 1st. Probably a good way to extend your Halloween festivities. I was there on that date, too, but I was not aware that the cemeteries were accessible. <br /><br />Back when New Orleans still had many streetcar lines, including the famous "Desire" line, one of the other routes ran cars whose destination signs read "Cemeteries"... and there were even funeral streetcars available for hire, precluding the need for a hearse and a procession of private automobiles. A century ago, many cities offered this service (no pun intended), including Chicago. Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-52915746555107613142019-04-09T10:32:47.683-05:002019-04-09T10:32:47.683-05:00I for one would like to see some of these travel b...I for one would like to see some of these travel blogs appear in the Sun-Times. I think the general public is ready for them.<br /><br />Here in Chicagoland, there aren't any cemeteries that I know of that rival the Recoleta, but there are some very interesting monuments to see all over, especially at Graceland Cemetery at Irving Park and Clark, including work by Laredo Taft and Louis Sullivan. Of course, I never took a look at them when I lived just across the El tracks from the place.<br /><br />johntatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10088632798195131329noreply@blogger.com