When you see the words “eternal hills” together, you can be pretty certain it is connected to a cemetery. Recently, I learned there was an Eternal Hills Memorial Park fifteen miles north in Oceanside. I had to check it out.
Typically when I visit a cemetery, there are very few living people there. But this visit was near Memorial Day, and I did need to social distance on a few occasions. This memorial park has been around since 1948 and covers 130 acres. There are beautiful views of the ocean and mountains and even space set aside as a native habitat.
One particular grave site took me down memory lane. At one of my first Padres games (back in the Jack Murphy Stadium days), I noticed a tall, strong-looking guy making his way through a crowd that seemed to part around him. When I asked who he was, I was politely told, “That is Junior Seau.”*
I didn’t know then that Junior Seau was a football legend. He played 13 seasons with the Chargers and ended his career with the Patriots. Unfortunately, he killed himself due to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a horrible consequence of head trauma caused from his football career. Oceanside is his hometown and final resting place.
Further into the cemetery, I found my ladies: an amazing girl holding a bird and some lovely angels. Below their photos is a video of something that I haven’t seen at a cemetery before: a tree full of wind chimes. If it hadn’t been a windy day, I might’ve missed it. Of course, I had to find out why. The answers ranged from scaring away deer that eat the vegetation to warding off evil spirits.
My exploration led me down a really creepy path. Well, we are talking cemeteries, right? Back in the “olden” days, when Edgar Allan Poe inspired folks, many were afraid of being buried prematurely. Coffins were built to allow a string to be tied on the deceased’s finger which was attached to a bell. If the person inside was in fact still alive, they’d ring the bell. So now you know where the terms “dead ringer” and “saved by the bell” come from.
