Old Car Show “in” a cemetery? Roselawn, I approve!

UPDATE 18 August: The car show has been cancelled. The pressure to not do other things like this got to the cemetery board. It makes me sad.

I love watching house buying shows on cable TV. I laugh every time the realtor or buyer mentions the negative feature of a house being across the street from a cemetery. I would definitely buy that house.

I have been to picnics in a cemetery, have driven through them with my children and grandchildren, and have growled at the ones with awful or non-existent records. I love cemeteries that have great upkeep, have a chapel, have ceremonies to honor military personnel and others buried there, and love creative cemeteries. They really aren’t as scary as they seem. Many are places of beauty. Some have concerts. Our ancestors (while they were still alive!) may have had picnics or family gatherings at the local cemetery. One here in Minnesota shows movies. Cemeteries are just one part of life (and dying?) and need to be utilized for more things.

Roselawn Cemetery (a mile from me) is hosting a car show. Not exactly in the cemetery, but on land adjacent. At first, I shook my head. Then I realized it would bring people to a place they usually don’t visit unless there is a funeral, would introduce children to a cemetery in a happier situation, and might even bring future business to the cemetery. I have ancestors and other relatives buried at Roselawn. I like to think that Great Grandpa Alexander Charles Stuart approves of this. After all, he spent much of his life associated with cemeteries. He carved many a cemetery headstone and created great cemetery stone sculptures in his profession. Those stones are in cemeteries in Wisconsin, Kansas, and Minnesota and maybe other states, too. [Side note that I have posted about before: Alex and his wife Emma do not have tombstones. They died quite poor.]

I bet there are many guys and some women buried in Roselawn that would love to inspect the old cars and trucks.

p.s. Roselawn is a beautiful cemetery, has a Cass Gilbert designed chapel, and the website is fantastic!