Union Cemetery

FALL CLEANUP 2015

As usual, we met at the RWC Corp Yard at 8:30. When we divided up into "teams", I only had 2 people! But when we got to the cemetery - there were more waiting for me!

I had walked the cemetery the day before, looking for my nemesis - the dasterdly ivy. I found 10 locations that we could potentially clean up. Some had HUGE expanses of ivy and others were just a sprig or two.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

NOTES:

  1. If I did not spell your name correctly, please let me know, and I will fix it.
  2. If you were there, and I did not get a picture of you and your group, please let me know! I think I got everyone, but I'm not sure....
Here are the first cleanup arrivals, Don, Carlton, and Tanaya. They are shown working at the Cemetery Entrance where that evil ivy had crept through the fence into our ground cover. It was rapidly getting out of hand until - they cleaned it up!

THANKS to

  • Don
  • Tanaya
  • Carlton
Inside, I saw that Abby had already grabbed two volunteers to help her with repainting the Cooley Fence. After the whole day was over, she couldn't stop raving about how these two girls helped her.

THANKS to the members of the WOODSIDE HIGH SCHOOL OCTAGON CLUB, who showed up in force!

  • Bella
  • McKenna
I had seen red (bloody?) gloves earlier, over at the Corp Yard breakfast, and thought they looked rather gholish - perhaps appropriate for Halloween. And then to my surprise the gloves showed up at the cemetery... how apropos!

For some reason I kept assigning this trio of ivy pullers to areas right next to (and even under) thorny roses. I'm going to assume the best - that their red-stained gloves are the ones I saw earlier, and not the result of rose thorns.

These girls are also members of the WOODSIDE HIGH SCHOOL OCTAGON CLUB. A BIG THANKS TO:

  • Nola
  • Taylor
  • Alexis
This wild group of kids (expertly organized by their grown-up staff) were a whirlwind of cleanup activity. First they successfuly tackled the maleficent ivy that was creeping back from our ivy-pulling efforts on the Green Plot six months ago. Then they attacked the dead old iris growing on the Huttman plot. They found an item that I am really glad is no longer in the cemetery, and that I hope won them the "most unusal item found during cleanup" back at the lunch.

THANKS to THE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF THE PENINSULA IN REDWOOD CITY:

  • Eric
  • Adrian
  • Nancy **
  • Brian
  • Rodolfo
  • Alexander
  • Anthony
  • Jennifer
  • Gabby
  • Victoria
  • Shellyn
I first became aware of these two because they were collecting garbage along the fence out on Woodside Road. When they came in, asking what to do next, I told them that there was a lot of garbage between the fences on the far side of the cemetery. So they headed over there.

A bit later they approached me. It is a frustrating job back there with all the garbage just thrown over the apartment building fence, much of it stuck in-between their fence and ours. We discussed what kind of tool would be good to reach that garbage. (At one point Julian volunteered to jump between the fences, but we said no.)

And then, at the end of our conversation, Julian shyly told me he had found something, and pulled out a $10 bill to give me! I was taken-aback and thanked him, and then inspiration hit! I asked if he wanted to become a Union Cemetery Association Member (the cost is $10) and he said yes. So this is our newest member, and his Mom gave me her email as contact information.

THANK YOU Julian and Denise!

Dee showed up to help, but her back was bothering her and she really couldn't help pull our loathsome ivy. I hadn't planned for this, but after thinking about it and looking around, I found the perfect job for her. She ended up removing moss from the shady side of our biggest crypt. She told me several times she liked that job - it was her style! and I invited her back ANYTIME to finish it up!

THANK YOU Dee!

I must include another picture of my two "Muscle Guys" this year. These guys cleaned up 5 of my 10 targetted ivy invasions. Granted, several of the spots were only a sprig or two, but still... This last plot, the Hanson Plot, was not easy. And I hope I have talked the two of them into coming back at next year's Fall Cleanup to continue on this plot. The plot was obviously an impressive showplace back-in-the-day, before the ivy. They discovered that there was actually some sort of brick pattern below the dirt and ivy.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

  • Don
  • Carlton
As before, the Recology Guys showed up near the end of the morning and took away the bags of our ex-Ivy :) . I was so happy to see them arrive, and so happy to see that ivy go.

THANK YOU RECOLOGY!

© 2011 Historic Union Cemetery Association

Send questions, comments, and feedback to ellen[at]HistoricUnionCemetery[dot]com