In the Flatland News

I see from Tuesday's obituaries in the Noise & Disturber that Carl Franklin Mickey, Sr., 86, of High Point died on Monday, March 4. Man, that's another close call. First of all, March 4 was my Mother's birthday and Mickey is her maiden name. Further, Carl Sr. is one of my Mother's many, many cousins and that makes him something like my second cousin. Carl took over the family business, Mickey Truck Bodies, the year I was born from his father -- my mother's uncle -- who had started it as a blacksmith shop 103 years ago. His brother -- my mother's father -- was also a blacksmith. I last saw Carl at a Mickey family reunion about 8 years ago.

And, did any of you read the Noise & Disturber story about the Yankee solder in the War of Northern Aggression who accidentally got reburied in Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery with a bunch of Johnny Rebel soldiers? Anyhow, the error has recently come to light and this Yank will stay buried in Raleigh but with a proper new Union tombstone. Apparently, being buried a third time is not a charm!

Well, on today's Editorial Page, Todd Crenshaw of Durham writes:

"I really enjoyed the story about the Union soldier, John Dolson, buried among the Confederate dead in Raleigh. I'm surprised nobody suggested Mr. Dolson be exhumed and reinterred in Cary."

Ouch! Now ain't that the truth, considering (as Mr. Crenshaw well knows) that CARY is an acronym for "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees"!

We could bury him in a big open field on some quiet road and then rebury him every ten years, or so, as the two-lane turns into a five-lane thoroughfare with stoplights and the open field morphs into a cramped neighborhood of $1,000,000+ haunted houses on cul-de-sacs.

No, Mr. Crenshaw, I'm afraid there is no rest for the dead in Cary. Not even for a long-dead Yankee soldier.