Is the Lamp Running Away From Home? (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Keith, Catsynth, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, Sean Jeating is providing the prompts and they will appear on River's   blog.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.squad  

2.cemetery  

3.flowers  

4.painted  

5.cross

and/or:

1.barely  

2.money  

3.eat  

4.freedom  

5.courage

use either list or both, or mix and match, just have fun.

Charlotte's colour of the month is Heavenly Blue if you choose to use it.

The old CEMETERY was in awful shape, and while most folks just tutted and said it was a shame, a few of us decided to actually finally do something about it.

We called ourselves the St. C SQUAD, which in our minds meant Save the Cemetery.  It simply wasn't right to let everything continue to degrade, even if the last burial had been a few generations ago.

On a lovely, clear day under a Heavenly Blue sky, we showed up with tools and equipment and started to clear out weeds, plot the various crypts and headstones, and try to decipher names and dates as best we could, as some of the various grave markers were barely readable any longer.  We wanted a map to show where each person was buried, since each was a special story even if no one remembered them now.

All of us gave what days we could to the project, so it took months.  Eventually we had the weeds cleared, lawn growing and being mowed, and then we decided to do more.

The old iron fencing was rusting out in places, so we PAINTED it with rustproofing paint to save as much of it as we could.  We made sure each grave had a small holder for FLOWERS and although the blooms we used were artificial, it still looked a good bit better than no color at all, just a sea of drab stones in a green lawn.

We cleaned all the scum off the CROSS at the front, and the people of the city, starting to feel a little ashamed of themselves for the neglect of so many years, put up a sign at the front and had small metal plates engraved with all the names and dates that we could read.  Each plate was secured to the back of the headstones or other markers.

It actually became a nice place instead of an eyesore, and it BARELY cost us any MONEY, at least not once people started to really notice and participate by donating to the effort.  All we really ended up paying was time, and of course we had to EAT on the days we were there so one of us would go pick up take-out.

It's amazing what people can do if they are given the FREEDOM to just start, and have the COURAGE to do so.

(Based on a true story, a cemetery not far from here was restored by volunteers and donations after decades of sad neglect.)

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Today is:

Automatic Toll Collection Day -- the first machine went into use on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway on this day in 1954

Beaujolais Nouveau Release -- France (at midnight, so really most of the celebration is tomorrow, a new wine celebration marked with fireworks and festivities)

Discovery Day -- Puerto Rico

Equal Opportunity Day / Dedication Day / Remembrance Day -- anniversary of the Gettysburg Address

Fete de S.A.S. le Prince Souverain -- Monaco (National Day)

Flag Day -- Brazil

Garifuna Day/Carib Settlement Day -- Belize

Geographic Information Systems Day   

"Have a Bad Day" Day -- for the hidden, or not so hidden, grouch in all of us; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

International Men's Day -- Australia; Canada; Ghana; Hungary; India; Ireland; Jamaica; Malta; Singapore; South Africa; Trinidad and Tobago; United Kingdom; United States

Liberation Day -- Mali

National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day

National Educational Support Professionals Day -- US

Please Maintain Your Focus Today Day -- internet generated, but a good idea

Repentance Day -- Saxony, Germany (Day of Prayer and Repentance [Buss und Bettag])

     Buss und Bettag -- German speaking Lutheran, Reformed, and United Protestants (Day of Repentance and Prayer)

St. Obadiah's Day (Obadiah the Prophet)

"What Ever Happened to Gary Pucket?" Day -- internet generated, and a fun question to research

Women's Entrepreneurship Day   

World COPD Day -- International (helping people understand Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; this year's theme is "Short of Breath, Think COPD")   

World Toilet Day -- sponsored by the World Toilet Organization (yes, really, to raise awareness of the 2.5 billion people who don't have access to proper sanitation)

Anniversaries Today:

Zion National Park is established, 1919

Women's Christian Temperance Union is founded, 1874

Birthdays Today:

McCaughey Septuplets, 1997

Kerri Strug, 1977

Savion Glover, 1973

Gail Devers, 1966

Terry Farrell, 1963

Jodie Foster, 1962

Meg Ryan, 1961

Allison Janney, 1960

Anne Curry, 1956

Eileen Collins, 1956

Scott Jacoby, 1956

Glynnis O'Connor, 1955

Kathleen Quinlan, 1954

Ahmad Rashad, 1949

Calvin Klein, 1942

Garrick Utley, 1939

Ted Turner, 1938

Dick Cavett, 1936

Jack Welch, 1935

Larry King, 1933

Roy Campanella, 1921

Indira Gandhi, 1917

Peter Drucker, 1909

Tommy Dorsey, 1905

Billy Sunday, 1862

James Garfield, 1831

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Heaven's Gate(Film), 1980

"Rocky and His Friends/Rocky and Bullwinkle"(TV), 1959

The first Automatic Toll Collection Machine, at the Union Toll Plaza in New Jersey, 1954

Today in History:

The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land, begins, 1095

Rabbi Isaiah b Abraham aha-Levi Horowitz arrives in Isreal, 1621

The Jakobinen club forms in Paris, 1794

The Jay Treaty, the first US extradition treaty, is signed with Great Britain, 1794

Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first European Americans to cross the continent, 1805

Warsaw University is established, 1816

The St. Petersburg flood, caused by storms, kills 10,000, 1824

The second Canadian railway line, the Montreal and Lachine Railway, is opened, 1847

Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address, 1863

Boss Tweed is convicted, sentenced to 12 years, 1874

Carrie Nation attempts to address the US Senate, 1903

NY receives the first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy, 1911

Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures (anybody want to guess what this eventually became?), 1916

The first issue of Time Magazine is published, with Emperor Hirohito on the cover, 1928

Télé Monte Carlo, Europe's oldest private television channel, is launched by Prince Rainier III, 1954

The first automatic toll collection machine is introduced on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway, 1954

Ford cancels the Edsel, 1959

Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon, 1960

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement, 1977

Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril of Canada arrives in Africa to lead a multi-national policing force in Zaire, 1996

Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of the Artist Without Beard sells at auction for $71.5 million USD, 1998

The People's Republic of China launches its first Shenzhou spacecraft, 1999

Claudia Castillo has a successful trachea transplant from stem-cell created organ, 2008

Many nations urge lower fishing rates on the Atlantic bluefin tuna; quota limits on the critically endangered fish are discussed by major fishing nations in Paris, 2010

The Philippines receives a $500 million emergency loan from the World Bank to help the country recover and rebuild in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, 2013

‘Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1), the first interstellar object in our solar system to be detected by humans, is sighted by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakaia Observatory, Hawaii, 2017 

LeBron James becomes the first player in NBA history to record a triple-double against all 30 franchises with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists as the LA Lakers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 2019

A partial lunar eclipse lasting 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds is the longest since 1440, 2021

Brazil records its highest-ever temperature of 44.8C (112.6F) in Araçuaí, Minas Gerais state, 2023