GROVE STREET CEMETERY: 'CITY OF THE DEAD' BUT FULL OF LIFE

The GROVE STREET CEMETERY in New Haven, Connecticut, opened in 1796 and is said to be “the oldest cemetery in the nation designed as the ‘city of the dead’ with named avenues and streets”. 

We visited for a half hour on July 31 2024. We could have been there a lot longer, wandering amongst the grave stones and memorials, taking in the peaceful atmosphere, however it was 86°F and humid, so it was a challenge to last even that long. 

The New Haven City Burial Ground, as it is also known, was designated a National Historic Landmark for the numerous monuments reflecting the history of funerary art in America. 

We marvelled at many of the unique headstones and sculptures dotted around the landscaped site. 

Those graves for veterans, which were adorned with American flags, easily caught our eyes, as did some of those with unusual names (such as Frisbie and Spock). Grove Street Cemetery is surrounded by Yale University, and we saw that many of the internments there are for those who had studied at the university. 

The cemetery was well looked after and we passed a small maintenance crew who were sensibly resting in the shade, as it was that hot. Other than them, we saw only a handful of visitors but we still felt safe when wandering about. 

We stumbled upon the grave of historian William Harry Goetzmann (1930-2010), winner of the Pulitzer and Parkman prizes, and known for his work on the American west. He had an impressive memorial featuring a Native American riding a horse. We noticed others had left coins on top, so we did the respectful thing and left a couple of coins too. 

The illustrated memorial for Winfred Rembert (1945-2021) caught our eye - it was adorned with a photograph of him, with the epitaph describing him as an artist. A week or so later, when in a bookstore in Exeter, New Hampshire, we saw a book by Mr. Rembert on sale, in which he chronicled his memories of the Jim Crow South as well as his evocative artwork many from colored pieces of leather.  

Cemeteries are known for the dead, but the New Haven Cemetery was full of life: squirrels clambered about and we even spotted a dragonfly resting atop the signpost for Magnolia Ave. We took a detailed closeup pic and it looked like the bug was smiling at us!

As we went to leave the cemetery, we were surprised to see a memorial for six ‘Amistad Captives’ - enslaved people aboard La Amistad - who had arrived in New Haven gravely ill and did not survive to see freedom like their compatriots following an historic Supreme Court case in 1841. The story of the ‘slave ship’ was famously told in the 1997 film directed by Steven Spielberg. 

 

We’ve been in several cemeteries around the United States over the years and they are always well maintained and looked after. 

Credit to those who take the time to remember the dead. 

 

JAWS - THE RIDE THAT GOT AWAY!

Today - June 20th 2024 - is the 49th anniversary since the release of the first ever summer blockbuster movie, JAWS!  As the countdown for the big 50th anniversary next year begins, let's look back at the greatly missed JAWS THE RIDE!

Jaws The Ride opened at Universal Studios Florida in 1990. Its troubled early days/years are well documented online and in print and a revised version of the ride finally opened in 1993.

I first experienced the Jaws ride in June 1994 when I was 13 years old and it terrified me! It all felt so real, with the build up to the encounter starting long before you boarded your tour boat:

• learning about the actual Chief Brody that the movie was based on as you waited in line watching the comedic ‘Hey There Amity’ show on raised monitors;

• setting off for an Amity Boat Tour but don’t worry “no sharks have been spotted for years”;

• turning the corner to see the sinking Amity 3 tour boat by the lighthouse, then a shark fin breaking the surface;

• hiding out in the stinky, dark boat house but the shark still finds you;

• being attacked on the port side just before a giant explosion at the Amity Gas Co. singes your eyebrows;

• and then a final shark attack amid a shower of sparks as it chomps down on the power cables just like the climax of JAWS 2!

Brilliant! They don’t make theme park rides like that anymore!

Back then, there were no digital cameras and the cameras we did have used actual film which needed developing later at a cost - whether your shots were any good or not. You took a chance having your camera out as you were at risk dropping it overboard or getting it wet during the shark attacks. The boat skippers also warned you that there was to be no flash photography. I was lucky enough to take several photographs of the Jaws ride in 1996 and 1998 which I now cherish for the memories.

Visitors were also lucky to see props from the last Jaws movie, 1987's awful 'Jaws The Revenge', including a shark which was left on display in the 'Bone Yard' (now the Plaza Stage area near the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit) to bake in the sun and have its teeth stolen.  Immediately outside the ride, in the town of Amity, you could get up close to a chomped Amity Police boat and the Neptune's Folly boat which killed the shark during the finale of that much derided movie. 

Theme park goers bid ‘farewell and adieu’ to the Jaws ride at Universal Studios Florida in early 2012 and it was subsequently replaced with the immersive Diagon Alley from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 

The hanging captured shark (known as Bruce after the prop shark from the original movie which itself was named after Spielberg’s lawyer) was installed in 1990 outside Jaws The Ride but was thankfully relocated from Amity to Fisherman’s Wharf when that part of Universal Studios was redeveloped. 

Bruce is still popular to this day. The nearby Chez Alcatraz bar cleverly capitalizes on the visiting Jaws fans by tempting them with the dramatic Ocean Attack cocktail!

But be warned: don’t do a Chief Brody and attempt a ‘half-ass autopsy’ on the bad fish after a few drinks: selfie-seekers won’t appreciate seeing that little Kintner boy spilling out all over the dock!