Cemeteries have become comfortable places for me in re- cent years. I have explored so many that each new one presents familiar relief carvings, statues, mourning verses, and monuments in shapes and patterns to which I have grown accustomed. This must be how it felt to Ameri- cans in the nineteenth century, when cemeteries were bet- ter integrated into community life and monuments were revisited like old friends. There was a time when I gave cemeteries a wide berth, going there only when required for a family burial. If I thought of these places at all, it was mainly in conjunction with Halloween
