What's this? More May 13 1704 deaths? Yes, apparently there was some kind of mass killing as a total of six families, ages 2-42, lie here along with "a captain". The English and American flags suggest these families were victims of the tensions between England and it's Colony, although which side the settlers were on at the time is not known to me (I am researching).

Separation of Church and State? Not in Holyoke, MA. Here, the largest Roman Catholic Church in the city raised money, built, and dedicated a plaza to JFK following his death.

The most famous quotation from perhaps the best-known inaugaration speech in the Nation's history.

I ran across this hand-made memorial alongside a secondary road in Easthampton, MA. I must have driven by it a dozen times until I realized it was there. So on this winter day I stopped to see what it was about.

The oblisk with plane atop makes for a pretty unusual memorial....as do the skeletal wings surrounding the oblisk (see first photo).

The bottom of the oblisks lists the three dead airmen.

My first thought was that the farm family had lost a son or relative. But none of the dead are from the local area, so this is unlikely. Then it struck me...the memorial is all made of aircraft aluminum, and the farm is located about five miles from a major military airfield and about the same from a secondary military airbase.

So my guess is the plane went down on this farm.

I've lived in the area 7 years, and my sister and family have lived here over 30 years, and I've never heard mention of this. So my curiousity is up, and I have research to do. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share.

This lone mushroom raising it's upturned umbrella to the sky seems to be quietly beseeching a grand spirit to elevate it, perhaps to the quiet resting place of trees and markers seen in the upper background.

I was struck by the juxtaposition of this cold, sleek, hard polished grave marker agains the wild, uninhibited color of the autumn foliage behind. Unfortunately it was a grey day, which did not allow my modest lense to yield enough depth of field to capture the shot the way I would have liked, with a bit more definition in the tree itself.

Technically this picture shows the ability of the Nikon D50 SLR to move the focus point around the screen, thereby allowing the close focus on a non-centered image.

Not a great shot, but one of the fun parts of the annual fall hikes of the Oberlin Club of Western New England is stumbling across the hidden history of New England. This was a spacious and little used old cemetery set on a dirt road in the middle of mountainess, wooded, peopleless terrain. Some of the club hikers are inspecting inscriptions. Just a snapshot, but look at the age of those gravestones. There was no grave even in the twentieth century in this plot, and then in the back right corner, the fresh recent grave of a veteran.