What Chicago is talking about this week:
Clowns.
And this will not be a post about Carlos Zambrano (although if the over sized shoe fits ...). It will actually be a post about dead clowns.
For those of you still reading, note that it takes me a week or two to catch up on all of the news around Chicago, so although International Clown Week ended two Sundays ago, it took me that long to really have a moment to look into this story a little more. And, even though it will soon be ten years I've spent in this city, I'm still fascinated to be learning about all kinds of its history.
Which gets me to my point -- the recent news coverage of the Showmen's Rest cemetery on the city's outskirts where clowns go when they die. Apparently, what started as a mass burial site for approximately 60 performers who perished in a train crash in 1918 in nearby Hammond Indiana (including tombstones that just read "Baldy" and "Smiley"), has now become a unique memorial site for circus performers. (And, although urban legend will tell you otherwise, no animals are buried there and the elephant statues in the cemetery are just artwork.)
My guess -- if you go to visit it during the day, it is a fitting memorial to those who embark on a unique vocational journey. And if you visit at night, it's probably a location just crying out to be featured in a Stephen King-like treatment!
THE WEBSITE (FEATURING ONE OF THE ELEPHANT STATUES):
http://www.showmensleague.org/showmens-rest
SOMEONE ELSE'S BLOG ABOUT UNIQUE FINDS IN GRAVEYARDS:
http://agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2011/06/circus-tragedy-and-showmens-rest.html
EVERYONE'S AT FAULT BUT ADIOS, PAYASO ZAMBRANO!:
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telander/7073783-452/cubs-are-culpable-too.html
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