“Cemeteries are like history books you can read” say Mike Grifantini of the Shasta Historical Society. We attended his walking tour of the Redding Cemetery over the weekend.
The monuments and markers serve as a rich illustration of history. A striking example was the many Reddingites who died from the flu epidemic in 1918. That pandemic must have had a grim impact on our small town. Many lives ended that year. History made real.
Go towards the light?
It’s a place of austere beauty. A solemn reminder that all our stories come to an end.
The Redding Cemetery is set on a bluff overlooking the Sacramento River
The gentleman above lived a good life, it seems. We should all strive for such a legacy.
Meanwhile below, one of the more painful of the million ways to die in the west, a movie currently playing in Redding theaters.
It is perhaps more important to realize there are a million ways to live in the West too. That’s Really Redding.
