Friday, April 11, 2014

Lincoln Cemetery / Royal Palm Cemetery

Back home in Louisville, we had Eastern Cemetery, a dilapidated and abandoned old graveyard adjacent to a fancy and lavish one, Cave Hill. So it is in Gulfport that we have the decaying Lincoln Cemetery situated right next door to the more upscale Royal Palm Cemetery. Although "Royal Palm" is admittedly a cool-as-hell name, I tend to refer to both graveyards as Lincoln for brevity's sake and think of them as one combined entity.

There are many graves in the old Lincoln Cemetery that are in an atrocious state of disrepair, including crypts actually damaged and partially broken open. Some stones are flat on the ground and only show a small portion peeking out through the grass; if something isn't done soon they'll completely end up vanishing.

Unlike Eastern Cemetery, which sends out palpable crazy-vibes to me even while just driving past it, I don't get that smothering sense of despair here. It does have a sort of resigned gloom about it, but warily welcoming at the same time.

If you go traipsing here, just remember there are snakes. I looked down to see a huge black one coiled up right beside my foot (fortunately I'm a fast leaper - it struck at me just as I was jumping backwards out of its way) and I wouldn't be surprised to find alligators nesting in Royal Palm's thick green scum-covered waters.

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