May 11th, 2016: Barre Gray

[xoxoxoBruce]

Barre, Vermont, rocks. ... No wait, Barre is stoned. ... Uh, Barre is the “Granite Capital of the World”
The City of Barre(barry) is about 10,000 people, surrounded by the town of Barre, with about 8,000 more.
"Barre Gray" granite is one of the most popular worldwide because of its fine grain, even texture, and superior weather resistance.
It is estimated that a third of all gravestones in the US are Barre granite. Barre says that’s cool because they have a hunk they
figure is 4 miles long, 2 miles wide and 10 miles deep.

The Hope Cemetery was established in 1895, and it immediately became the playground for the artisans of Barre.
These skilled immigrants worked the hard stone and fashioned them into elaborate memorial designs.

But working with granite has fatal side effects. Inhaling the granite dust leads to a respiratory disease called silicosis, and many
of the artisans and sculptors succumbed to it and died. When the Spanish flu epidemic swept through the area in 1918-19,
many sculptors knowing that death was just round the corner, started designing their own tombstones to showcase their skill.
The tradition has been carried on since then. It is estimated that 75% of the tombstones in Hope Cemetery were designed by
the occupants of the graves themselves.

Of course with WW I & II mixing men from the far corners of the US, and in the 50s/60s TV homogenizing America, now the internet
creeping into every nook and cranny of our lives, even little towns in New England are hip. Some people aren't happy with stones
that reflect the hobby or passion on the corpse, especially when a motorcycle gang adopts a cemetery to plant their members.
Even down under in New Zealand and Australia they have that struggle going on.

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