Dear Lists, Recently I sent an email out informing people about a really good society that has recently been formed which is raising money for the restoration of the Old School Southampton Meetinghouse. Well, today I took a walk down to the church to inspect things for myself, okay, the letter was truthful. The foundation has some rather large holes in, the interior floor could use some work, and my god, the roof looks like it is going to collapse in some places. Oh yea, the cemetery wall in some places almost does not exist. Ah the cemetery, where to begin. I started walking around inspecting the stones for abuse and such, I couldn't find much, at first anyway. The weeds and grass close to the stones needs to be trimmed, some twigs and branches could be picked up, and some military markers have seen better days, along with some of the flags. That is all relatively minor general things. I started walking around the perimeter and first I just saw one stone kind of back in the corner by a huge pile of branches, I am assuming it does not belong there as it was a good distance from any other stones. Then I came to a back of some over grown forsithia (excuse my spelling here), and a kind of large pile of rocks, or atleast thats what I thought. When I looked at the rocks closer I realized that they were broken headstones, thrown into a big pile, most of the pices were now no bigger than footballs. Judging from the kind of stones, I'd say a good portion of these were some of the first burials at the church, probably with no discernable markings left on them, so someone thought it a good idea to remove them. I was disgusted. After that I noticed some beer bottles lying around. So, I am going to write to the people in charge of the restoration of the church to see if I can't get a little funding for the cemetery itself and have a weekend where volunteers come out, pick up and place fallen stones in storage inside the church, clean up the yard waste, and try to figure out something with the pile of stones. Before I write to them, I would like to know if anyone who lives in the Bucks and Montgomery County area who would be willing to spend a Saturday or Sunday cleaning up the churchyard. If you say you would like to help, there is of coarse no obligation, I would just like to be able to tell these people that "x" number of people are willing to help. Thank you all for your time. Sincerely, James Austin Evanson Upper Southampton Twp., Bucks County, Pennsylvania P.S. The church is on PA RT 232 (Second Street Pike) and Maple Ave., across from the Tammenend Park Entrance and right down the road from Eugene Klinger Middle School. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com