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Graveyard Rabbit of South Alameda County by Cheryl Palmer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

"Mr. Parade"

On one of my ventures out on a cemetery visit I hopped on over to Pleasanton Pioneer Cemetery. I have passed this cemetery many times in the last 20 years and never knew it was there. It sets on a main road going towards the outskirts of Pleasanton. There is a small driveway, which is difficult to see unless you know it is there. With brush along the side of the road for quite a stretch, you do not expect to see a cemetery entrance here. There isn't any sign of "life" in the general vicinity. Although the cemetery isn't visible from the street it is a perfect place for a cemetery. With address in hand I drove past the cemetery, missed it the first time around. Almost missed it the second time around also, however there were some maintenance trucks by the entrance and that caught my eye. The grounds crew were working on the entrance and actually had the main sign blocked so I couldn't get a good picture of it. But I found the entrance and drove up a little hill into the cemetery.I took a stroll through the grounds and knew it had been through some changes. It was a nice, warm, pretty day in California but the cemetery struck me as old and sad. Sad simply because it was a cemetery and seemed so lonely. But more on the cemetery at a later date, for now I want to share a specific headstone. Carrying the feeling of real sadness as I was walking through, I happened to cross this headstone, and it gave me such a smile!"Mr. Parade!" Edward Joseph Kinney, December 1, 1937 ~ April 29, 2005. And a smiley face! I think this man was a very happy person. But what convinced me all the more was when I looked at the back side of the headstone and saw this...I am sure "Smilin' Ed" brought much happiness to those who knew him. Even after his passing he brought a smile to at least one strangers face, mine.

4 comments:

Terry Thornton said...

Cheryl,

Thanks for "Mr. Parade" and his smiley face. The marker interested me so much that I did a Google Search and found more information about "Edward Joseph Kinney" at findagave. It was interesting to learn about his political symbol (smiley face) and his nickname --- "Mr. Parade." Mr. Kinney must have been a warm and caring person --- his grave marker makes me smile too.

Thanks,
Terry Thornton
Fulton, Mississippi USA

Anonymous said...

That is probably the most cheerful tombstone I've ever seen!

Anonymous said...

Makes me wish I knew Mr. Parade. Thanks for sharing.

Cheryl Palmer said...

Not to often you see a marker that makes you smile like that, is it? Terry, I will have to check out what you found! Thank you for the comments!