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FREAKY
TALES This page is like summer camp and we are all gathered around the campfire to see who can tell the scariest tale. Each month we will feature one of your stories here. The stories will be picked from those that you post on the Freaky Tales Forum NO RESPECT, NO HONOR, NO SENSE OF RIGHT OR WRONG - By: J. A. George - Edited By: The GYPSY Vandalism is an ugly thing. To destroy someone’s property for thrills, revenge, laughs or whatever the reason may be is not only an unlawful act but the act of an individual or people with no sense of honor or respect. These are people with no moral thermometer to tell them the difference between right and wrong.
To me the worst sort of vandalism is the desecration of cemeteries. Beneath the ground we are all equal. Above the ground however sits the memorials to our memories placed there by those who loved us in life. It is the last mark we leave upon the Earth and the one thing that shows the world that someone cared about us; our headstones.
When a headstone is vandalized it is a direct slap in the face to the memory of the individual and those who loved them. Those who vandalize a cemetery never stop to realize what impact their actions truly have. The pain and grief that others suffer from their dishonorable acts.
Within our world there are cemeteries that contain the remains of those long forgotten. What family and friends these people had have either passed away or moved on. These cemeteries lay lost and forgotten and are easy prey for the disrespectful acts of vandals.
So it was that on November 27, 2009 I and the rest of the S.K.I.P.S. (Southeast Kansas Investigators of the Paranormal and Supernatural) Team came upon the Le Hunt, Kansas Cemetery. A Cemetery long abandoned in the backwoods of Kansas and near the ghost town of Le Hunt, Kansas. Vandals had knocked over stones and had spray painted many of the memorials.
The S.K.I.P.S. Team decided to return as soon as we could to attempt repairs upon the monuments. We would soon find that this would not be an easy task.
Though Montgomery County owns the land that the town site sets upon as well as the county road leading through the ghost town and to the cemetery the surrounding land is leased from the county by a Farmer who has no desire to let anyone through the gate he has installed blocking the road.
Upon checking with the County Clerk, Charlotte Schmidt, I discovered that access to the cemetery cannot be blocked. I was also able to find out the name of the cemeteries Sexton, Max Sherwin. When I called to get permission for the S.K.I.P.S. Team to tend the Cemetery I was informed by Mr. Sherwin's wife that he was gravely ill. I explained what we wanted to do and she said that it would make Mr. Sherwin very happy for that to happen.
I then went back to the county clerk’s office and set up days when we would be going to do the repairs. We had to schedule after hunting season as a lot of hunting takes place in that area and we wanted to be sure we would be safe. Mrs. Schmidt contacted the Sheriffs Department to let them know when we would be out there and all was set.
Our first outing was March 1, 2010 when me and my wife, S.K.I.P.S. Co-Founder Debbie George hiked the mile and a half up the bluff to the cemetery hauling supplies to try and remove the graffiti from the stones.
Though we were able to fade the graffiti we were not able to remove it. So we decided to return on March 8, 2010 to paint and recoat the stones over the graffiti.
On March 8, 2010 Debbie was unable to return with me so my son S.K.I.P.S. Team Member Nick Burt went with me to finish the repairs.
The day was gray and damp and it had been raining on and off all day long. When we arrived at the cemetery we immediately set about drying the stones with the towels we had brought. We knew we would not have long to work so we went to work immediately. We painted and recoated each vandalized stone with several coats of gray primer and matching ivory paint.
Mother Nature waited until our task was done and opened a deluge of showers upon us. By the time we made the long, wet journey back down the bluff to the truck we were soaked. It didn't matter though because what we had accomplished on this soggy late winter day was way beyond value. We had helped those who were past the power to help themselves and that is something that cannot be measured by monetary means.
We want to try and go up with a lift sometime to set the knocked over stones upright. Will we be able to do that? Only time will tell. For now we have done what we could. We pray that the vandals we now leave the cemetery be especially considering the difficulty in getting to it now. Maybe, just maybe, the spirits of Le Hunt will now guard what can no longer be protected by mortal man. 
-The GYPSY-
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| FREAKY TALES ARCHIVES | The Albino Woman | A Town To Tough To Die | The Kid In The Attic | ||
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This site was last updated Tuesday March 09, 2010 08:34:03 PM
