PADELAWA-L Archives

From: Dora Smith <>
Subject: talked to Arlington Cemetery, still need local VFW post
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 07:53:27 -0700 (PDT)

I talked to Arlington Cemetery. They really
don't keep track of anything there. They don't
know what organizations put stuff on the graves!
They don't know who is supposed to have stuff on
their graves. They don't know who were veterans.
They don't know who has military markers. They
really don't know much! They said, no
organizations don't have to check with them
before they put stuff on the graves in their
cemetery, and no, they don't keep lists of which
graves are supposed to have stuff on them. I
guess that means if you purchased perpetual care
for your family member's grave, you'd better
watch out - because it is logical to think that
they don't know which graves flower stuff is
supposed to go on any more than they know which
graves military stuff is supposed to go on.

How can a cemetery not keep track of who has
permission to put what on what graves? I heard
from a college fraternity, wanted to put a marker
on a 19th century founder's grave, looking for
immediate kin of this marker because THAT
cemetery said he had to get their consent to put
stuff on the grave.

And when I talked to the woman at the VA office
for Delaware County again, or, rather the
supposedly more intelligent woman there I was
told grudgingly to talk to when I called
yesterday, she said that at Arlington Cemetery,
they hire young kids to cut the grass, and the
kids knock over those flag holders, and when they
get through, maybe they have five flag holders
they knocked over, and they don't know where they
go, they just put them back anywhere, so that
when people come to her and say someone stole the
flag holder from my family member's grave, she
says, no, they didn't steal them, it's probably
somewhere else three rows over.

It's a wonder they can manage to organize getting
the lawns mown at Arlington Cemetery ... how can
a place that looks so neat be so disorganized.

Now, my parents have arranged for grave markers
there, not that they are going to be buried
there, because most of my father's family are
buried there. I'm not going to tell them, I
wouldn't choose to bury family members at
Arlington. It's too important to them to be with
family! But I wouldn't choose to be buried
there! The place looks too coldly neat and
depressing, anyway. I thought, that's because I
have depression and it's a cemetery - but no,
there's something wrong with the place.

The woman I talked to at the VA office, whose
name was Franny, really was more helpful and also
a bit more intelligent than the woman I talked to
yesterday, but she was telling me that seventy
posts go to Arlington Cemetery, which she knows
because they have to come to her to order their
flagholders - and when I asked her for teh ONE
VFW post that supposedly goes there, she starts
reading me a whole lists of addresses for
American Legion posts. Well, that was handy too,
so I took down one. She just had post commanders.
When I called it, I got an elderly man who really
wasn't in a state to be called at home and was
kind of annoyed, because Ishould have been given
the phone number for the post office - which, for
Upper Darby, is 610-626-9529, and they open at 11
AM. She also finally found me a VFW listing -
also the post commander's name and phone number.
When I dialed that, I got a long set of beeps,
meaning these people don't even check their phone
messages very often, and left my name, phone
number (I'm only in Texas) and I'm trying to pin
down this flagholder on my great grandfather's
grave and I don't know how on earth else to get
ahold of you.

Then I called back the VFW office in Washington,
and this time I spoke to John Neeves, who I
actually was referred to by teh response I got
from VFW's information e-mail address who I had
written to. He didn't have either his catalogue
of flagholders or the contact information for the
local VFW post handy - but he said he'd find it
out if he can before he leaves for a two week
trip.

So I can still use to know, if anyone knows it,
how to contact the local VFW post for Upper
Darby.

Yours,
Dora Smith







__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites.
http://invites.yahoo.com/

This thread:

• talked to Arlington Cemetery, still need local VFW post by Dora Smith <>