Turn The Water Off, Darrel!
Every community has those that do, those who talk about what they have done, and those that have not done much of anything. It’s “those that do” and “those that have done” that make our communities special. We all know who they are. We don’t often give them the thanks that are due them, but frankly, “the ones that do” really don’t want or expect anything in return. It’s just how they are, and who they are.
Hard To Believe—That’s A lot Of Work, Hard Work
When I first started in this work, there was a group of gentlemen that took care of the Kit Carson Cemetery. Some of these guys were the likes of George Lichtenhahn, Earl Hogan, Roy Wombles and Cecil Brown. I think there was another or two, but their names have escaped me. Within the group was a fella by the name of Gene Beltnab (not sure of the spelling). Gene knew how to run a shovel, I mean really run a shovel. Because of his digging ability, he got the nickname “Dirty Gene”. These fellas were still digging the graves by hand when I first started., and there was NO CHARGE. It really didn’t matter, rain or shine, wind, snow or hail they always got it done. Maybe all those goose pits that they dug had them in perfect digging shape for digging graves. George used to dig the goat heads and sand burs out of the barrow ditch on the road going to the cemetery with a push hoe!
That’ll Never Work Here
I remember so vividly the day that I told the KC crew that we would be bringing a cement burial vault in. You see, up to this point there had never been anything but fiberglass, cedar boxes, or steel vaults used there (or nearly anywhere for that matter). I went to the cemetery to explain to the guys that we would be bringing in a cement vault and plain as day, George said “It’ll never work”. He said, “These old sandy walls will never support that much weight.” The cemetery in Kit Carson is on a sandy hill north of town, and it truly is pure sand. I did my best to reassure him that it would work. I had made a business decision to only offer concrete because they were much better quality for basically the same money as fiberglass. You got to remember that this generation of men and women built our small communities. Our community centers, our churches, our roads, everything we know was built by this generation. They were workers, and like most of that generation had a tendency to overbuild. Let me digress for a moment: My great grandmother, Juanita Frazee believed that there was nothing better than a Clark galvanized 8 gauge steel burial vault! All of my family from that generation is buried in one. But I can assure you that concrete is better. You would never convince her of that.
Back To the Story...
The day came to have the funeral in Kit Carson. I don’t remember whose it was but I do remember this: I went out to the cemetery before the start of the funeral and what I saw was something I wished I had a picture of. It was five old men (probably in their 80’s) standing around a grave with a concrete vault suspended in it. They would not have been any more fascinated if it had been an elephant. Try if you will to imagine the surprise on their faces of seeing something like this for the very first time. I’ll never forget it! They had just witnessed the very first cement burial vault placed in the Kit Carson cemetery. In all of our lives there are monumental occasions. Happenings that we don’t forget. You gotta remember that these men had been a witness to the invention of the first combustible engine, the first wheeled tractor, the invention of electricity, the telephone, running water, paved roads, and the list goes on and on. I can’t imagine what they would have thought of the internet! I truly don’t believe that any of these other things impressed them any more than seeing a concrete burial vault for the very first time. At least that is what the expression on their face said.
More Water Please
Up in that sandy cemetery, the crew always water packed the graves. They used water to settle that sand, and it worked great! To this day, when the KC crew gets done, the grave never settles a bit. They take great pride in their cemetery, and they do a beautiful job of maintaining it. The current crew learned from the very best. They would use a probe and put a lot of water in there. The old originals got old (like 95) and decided it was time to let someone else take it over, and there have been some good ones, and there are still some good ones like Bob McNeeley, Charles Oswald, Ronald White, Larry Kohart, and the list goes on and on. Great bunch of guys. But this story centers around a guy that I have counted as one of my dearest friends, Darrel Schallenberger. I had been telling Darrel that he really needed to go easy on the water because one of these days he was going to get enough water under that vault that it was going to end up on top of the ground. I guess he didn’t believe me. The crew has a routine that following the filling in of the grave, they would go to the Trading Post and the cemetery district would buy them a hamburger. This was their pay for the day. I remember the day and I remember the funeral. It was for Audrey Johnson (Everett’s mother) and it was at the Kit Carson United Methodist Church. We had completed the committal, I had returned to the church to pick up our flower stands and put things away. Darrel came running into the church, literally running, his eyes as big as half dollars and said, “Jimmy, you gotta come to the cemetery right now, something terrible has happened.” I tried to get him to tell me what was wrong, and all he would say is, “You gotta get there quick.” I raced to the cemetery in the hearse and what I saw I will never forget. The east end of Mrs. Johnson’s vault was sticking up out of the ground and there stood Darrel with very much the same expression on his face that I had seen some years earlier on the original crew. Darrel said, “What are we going to do?” I said, “Don’t sweat it Darrel, we’ll lift it out, you can re-dig the hole, and we’ll start over.” And that’s what we did. The old saying, “All’s well that ends well”.
Thank Goodness for the Crew
One thing that all of our communities all have is good people. We can always use more, but we sure do have some good ones. I will admit, there have been some real challenges with that sandy soil, and we’ve had our fair share of side cave ins, but the KC Cemetery crew always comes through. Oh, by the way, when George’s wife died, he said, “I want one of those cement vaults.” They must be alright; they passed the test of the old originals in the KC Cemetery Crew! Things happen, and it generally turns out all right but at the end of the day it sure does leave you longing for the “way things used to be.”
