Litchfied East Cemetery Plot

Walter David Munson was 22 years old at the end of the Civil War and a Captain in the Union Army. Subsequently he founded the Munson Steam Ship Line operating passenger service to Bermuda and to the Caribbean out of New York City at the age of 33. He married Emily Wood and they had 5 children: Della Canfield, Carlos Walter, Frank C, Beulah Beach and Mabel. Walter David, Emily Wood, Frank C and his wife Cora Mallory, Mabel Emily and her husband William Hamilton Wood and daughter Beulah Beech Wood Mitchell and Beulah Beach Munson Van Surdam are buried in this family plot. Beulah Beech was my mother. She is buried between her grandmother Emily Wood Munson and her mother Mabel Munson Wood. I do not know why Della Canfield and Carlos Walter are not buried here. My mother was one of 4 children, 3 girls and a boy. I do not know why she is the only one of her siblings buried here, or for that matter the only one of her generation, except that her early death was within a decade of when her parents and aunts died. Her placement next to her grandmother and mother is special. Hers is the last grave here. Cora Mallory's family owned the Mallory Steamship Line, also providing passenger service from New York to Bermuda. Her marriage to Frank C. Munson facilitated the merger of the two business lines. The company was overextended in the credit crisis following the 1929 stock market crash and folded in 1938 but family money remained sufficient to give these two their grand graves here. Cora Mallory endowed the Munson Institute of Maritime Studies in 1955 at the Mystic Seaport Museum.

Glory Days

Litchfield Images 1923 1924 1939 Beulah Beech Wood

october brook

end of the line

heavenly blue

swampside

early days

damicos sunflowers

fall flowers upstate

d&r canal aquaduct

ruckman road wild grapes

a capella

thing called love only you sweet dreams

mountain high on the roof

closter stone yard

giant puffball

sandy hook - navesink

kortright

suicide king

It's in the cards.

That's where the cycle of 13 moons intersects the 4 seasons.
A living archetype buried beneath everyday familiarity.
Anthony shows me the red suicide king with his drawn sword
stuck in his head, pointing at his heart.
He reads drama in the cards matching
the drama of the contest.
We are first-times spades partners. I soon find
he is a wizard of cards
who enjoys the game commentary
as much as the game -
and he finds I am a competent partner.
It is good
but the card talk spooks me.
The individual fates of the cards as we play
become our fate,
controlled by the luck of the draw,
limited by our ability to maximize their potential.
I much prefer the unplayed deck in its regal calendar
abstraction.
The celestial ordering of 4 by 13 transports me.
The cards are imprinted with the music of the spheres.
The ancestors are there.
Here card sharps and sharp cards have their moment.
Suddenly the game is over.

webster brook

grandview