652. Ghost Stories, Family Traditions, & Father Bee

Go to some place years later. A place where you spent every waking hour in for 18 years and there will be plenty of ghosts, so many ghosts. And those ghosts are still very much alive. That’s the way it is for me in Grapevine, Texas.

So many ghosts both alive and dead but the past breathes in a place like Grapevine. It’s history swims about the joint. It’s interesting that the cemetery reads like a roll call for the teachers, principals, and educators at Cannon, GMS, GCISD. They are all there and death is the great equalizer. And thank goodness I’ll be able to visit all those folks in one place when my Mom is hanging out with my Dad and Principal Dunn.

And you know these last names from growing up in the community and you realize they, like you, had ties to Grapevine, except some of theirs ran deep. Deeper than the muddy Brazos, the clear-ish Trinity, the depths of Texoma with some 148 pound cat waiting down there in the cool dark bottom.

It’s all downhill from here Cow!!

The Redmond’s, The Jackson’s, The Parker’s, the Moore’s??, so many last names of kids I grew up with. Who knew they had so many cousins, aunts, Gruncles, grandparents, and in some cases the generation even above that resided seemingly quite happy in Grapevine Cemetery??

Cemeteries tell stories. And the storytellers have to be concise. Let me man-splain ya sumpin’ sumpin’ right here… when I be saying concise , what I mean by that word right there… is…. …and another thing… ;0)

They must be concise because each & every word, letter, is gonna be costing them. Such is the funeral memorial industry. Ever wonder as the world population keeps growing and the dead bodies are all accumulating… what’s gonna happen eventually with all those bones?? — Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

So each gravestone really is a life story, a life and death story. Who did they choose to be buried by? What did they or their loved ones choose to be said about who they were, what their life was all about. Fascinating.

In Grapevine & North G-Vine Lake Country called Flo Mo there are ghosts, plenty of ghosts, roaming around probably listening to Journey or Van Halen as they still cruise G-vine main.

And now for the ghost stories and family traditions. We got to telling Aunt Janice stories after her memorial service and it sounds like that’s something the Swinney’s have been doing for a long long time.