ABC or OCD?

Recently I spent a week in Lynchburg, VA with some of my favorite people! One of these “faves” found a website that shared strange and unknown facts about Lynchburg, VA. My dear friends thought it would be fabulous to take me on a mystery adventure. Feeling bold and daring, I took them up on the surprise adventure. Well we drove around for a long time, the GPS guiding us only to end up in a friendly neighborhood where my friends were convinced was not the right place.

So, we set out to find the right location. They stopped one man walking down the street and showed him a paper and said, “Do you know where this place is? Don’t say what it is out loud because our friend doesn’t know where we are going…” The man looked at them quizzically and said, “Never heard of it, but I’m sure it’s around here someplace.” What? He’s never heard of it, but he’s SURE it’s around here someplace. Where in the world were they taking me?

Knowing my friend like I do, I said, “All I know is you’d better not be taking me to a cemetery. If I ride around all night with you trying to find a cemetery, I’ll be upset.” She just assured me we were going to have fun.

Next we went to a convenient store where my friend asked several old timers there about this mystery location. They’d heard of it, but couldn’t agree where it was. Hmmm, we were getting nowhere.

At last, my friend had a novel idea. I’ll call the police! They should know where this place is. Now she had a dilemma. She couldn’t call the police and ask them about this place without me overhearing it. She discussed it with her “partner in crime” and they decided to let me in on the secret.

Ok, so I’m trying to decide whether or not to tell you now or make you wait like I had to…

Alright, I’ll be nice and tell you. They were looking for the A-B-C cemetery. (I knew it! I just knew she’d drag me to a cemetery J)

Apparently, there was a private cemetery outside of Lynchburg and its caretaker had OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). He had to make sure all the graves were in alphabetical order. Each time someone new died, he would dig up the old graves and reorganize them in order. I know this sounds crazy and at first I thought this was crazy. This couldn’t be legal! The word on the net is that he had a disclaimer in the paperwork when you got a plot there agreeing to this arrangement.

As the man was nearing the end of his life, he realized that there was no one around to make sure the graves were in order after he died. He was too old and didn’t have enough time or energy to re-bury everyone himself. So he did what any logical man would do – he changed his name to Zuckerman. No kidding!

Ok, believe it or not, this is just the beginning of the story. I’ll save the rest for my next post. Our adventure was a wild one and not one I’ll easily forget. Stay tuned for more on the A-B-C cemetery.