Today, Sue & I took some friends for their first day of letterboxing. We've been talking about it with them for some time but couldn't find an opportunity to get together until today. We made plans to eat at a Middletown restaurant after we boxed so we left 1 car there and started our boxing afternoon.
As an intro and with the predicted rain showers, I thought some drivebys might be nice since we could run between the raindrops and give them a taste of what boxing entails in an easy format as a starter. The first few boxes went great - and the husband of the couple really seemed to take to it - finding the proper place, rehiding well etc. His wife was the one who initially liked the sounds of letterboxing but he was teasing us about it. A day in the field and we think it might have changed his mind. Little did we know that we'd have more than 2 letterboxing converts!
Well we went to a 2 box series planted in the cemetery on the grounds of a CT mental institution. Apparently, thanks to the history that the local planter included in her clues, mental illness was looked down upon in the late 1800's and early 1900's and had an attitude of shame attached to it. All of the graves were marked with numbers only on small cement gravestones due to the then current attitudes about mental illness. Names were not put on the stones to protect the families of the patient.
In the early 1980's, a group got together and started to research the names and their corresponding grave stone marker numbers so that loved ones could now find the plot where family member rested. A huge 3 stone memorial was erected at the beginning of the main cemetery plot with all of the patients names, their plot number, date of death and their age at the time of death. One of the stones has a stirring poem that told about a 3 generation search for where a loved one rested and how, due to this project, the plot number was now available. It was a very sad but interesting memorial to visit.
After we found the first box, we headed to the field across the dirt road from the first cemetery to the second box found in a smaller cemetery plot. While we were finishing stamping in, we all noticed a State police car driving down the road and it stopped next to my car after the officer noticed us on the hill. We finished stamping in and as we walked down to the car, we noticed "backup" had arrived in the form of another State police car!
As we walked to the street, we noticed it was a female officer and I said, "I bet you'll never guess what we were doing!"
"I've heard it all," she responded.
"Bet you never heard this one!" I responded.
Then I took the clues from Sue and showed and explained what we were doing and how letterboxers planted boxes in historic sites or areas that were of special interest. I further explained that we never would have found this cemetery and explained the impression it made on all 4 of us. She went on to explain that some of the mass graves were unmarked since the patients were participants in experimental treatments like lobotomies and such.
She said she was surprised to find people in the cemetery since it usually wasn't until near Halloween when the public started visiting. Apparently, this cemetery has an area where people have spotted orbs and is on several of the state's haunted websites as an active area for ghosts and paranormal activity. "We usually throw them out" she said.
As we explained letterboxing to her, and her backup left seeing the situation was under control, we spotted that gleam in her eye. You know the gleam - the one when someone gets it?
"Do you have children?" I asked after spotting a wedding band on her hand.
"Yes, 2 young daughters," she responded.
"This is ideal for them" we explained and gave her the 2 major clue repository websites so she could research boxing a bit more. While she said she didn't travel much because of the expense and having a young family, this sounded like a great hobby to do as a family locally.
Then, since she must have reported the car before we headed down the hill, she asked for my license just to complete the process. When she brought it back, I teased her and said "So the outstanding warrant on me didn't show up?" She laughed, wished us a good day and we went off to finish our boxing for the rest of the afternoon. You just never know how and when you'll get a chance to convert a muggle to a boxer!
