More symbols than you can shake a stick at

Dennis Jon Walker’s tombstone is so dense with information about him that I stopped the car to see it.  On top, in addition to his name and dates of his birth and death, you get his nickname and the important familial relationships in his life.

I’m going to assume that the hose, hoe, and rake are representative of an interest in gardening or landscaping, and I think that the phrase under the globe is “world traveler.”  Clearly, dirt and dust are not friendly to this artwork.  And his career – a UPS worker, it appears.

And on this side, we have hobbies – biking and fishing.  The Ohio State symbol – an alumnus, or just a sports fan?

And on the front, a nicely artistic integration of yet another interest, photography, with his portrait.

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Nicknames

I know exactly why I took this photograph. “Whitey” was not just Lewis Wagner’s nickname, it was also my maternal grandfather’s. I’ve posted before about how fascinating I find names, and that includes nicknames. I suppose my grandfather could have gotten the name “Whitey” from a brief period of time where he had white hair, but the photos I have seen of him indicate he began losing his hair fairly young and took the same approach my middle brother has to the problem – purposely buzzing or shaving the remaining hair makes it much less obvious how much of it has disappeared.

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Boney and Babe

A partial explanation for the unusual names listed on the front of these two headstones can be found on the back of one.

It seems reasonable to conclude that Aubrey Bonecutter was known by the nickname of Boney. The origin of what I am assuming to be his wife’s nickname is not so easily surmised based on what I photographed that day.

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