You Can't Go Home Again...

Well, maybe you can.

After arriving on Long Island, I took some time to visit some clients before heading to my hotel. It was a good day, overall, and I was happy to finally get to the hotel and relax for a little while.

My boss told me to take Sunday off and, being one to listen to my superiors, I did. Camera in hand, I hit the road.

I have this thing for cemeteries. I don't believe this is breaking news. Of all the cemeteries I've shot in, though, I've never shot in the one which was about 200 yards down the road from the house I grew up in, on Townline Road in Hauppauge. The Hauppauge Methodist Church was organized in 1806, and the building itself was financed by contributions of between five and ten dollars which, presumably, was a good sum of money for, say, a farmer in 1806. The oldest grave on the grounds dates to 1812, so it's safe to assume, I think, that the building was completed bewteen 1806 and 1812.

This is a great old church. When my Mom remarried in 1980, she was married in this church. We weren't Methodist, but I don't think anyone minded.  

Hauppauge Methodist Church

Hauppauge Methodist Church

It's not too difficult to find old graveyards in New York. This one is, in fact, the second oldest in Hauppauge (I'm going to try to make it to the oldest at some point). When I was a kid, we were convinced this place was haunted. Hell, for all I know, it is, and I don't know that I'd really be surprised by that. I remember riding my bike past the cemetery at night in the summer; I'd always pedal a little faster. If we had to walk past it, we might even cross the street and step up our pace a little bit. Hey, when you're 12 years old, it's not hard to get freaked out by a cemetery as old as this one.

If it is haunted, I have to imagine that some of the local historical figures, who enjoy their final repose at what is also known as "Hauppauge Rural Cemetery", would be among the ghosts:

Two of the many Blydenburgh graves...



The grave of Adolph Olivia, who fought in the Civil War for the North...

The grave of Thomas Wheeler, one of Hauppauge's founding families...

Some headstones are completely unreadable...

In all honesty, I could've spent a few hours just walking around the place. This is the kind of cemetery I would like to shoot at night, with an infrared set-up; maybe some thermal gear. I do believe in ghosts and, having grown up here, it's almost as if I think I'd feel some connection to them.

I know, that might seem weird, but then so is having a thing for old cemeteries...