The 2007 Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk Recap

As some of you may have read in some of my previous articles, I participate each year in the "Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk" here in Sonoma County, CA, in the little town of Sebastopol. The Walk is the biggest fundraising event each year for the Western Sonoma County Historical Society of which I am a Past Co-President and serve on the Board of Directors.

The Walk includes 6 different "vignettes" (or skits) depicting some event in the lives of several of the cemetery's "residents", a soup 'n salad supper and dessert and coffee afterwards served in the Caretaker's Cottage at Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Farm (National Register of Historic Places). We do four "seatings" (or "audience groups") per night for two nights each year in early October. We just concluded this year's Walk this last Friday and Saturday nights.

We had "dress rehearsal" on Thursday where we typically do one "run-through" of the vignettes for all of the volunteers who work in food service and the "guides" for the audience groups that shepard them around the cemetery and between the two food venues.

On Thursday at the dress rehearsal, the weather was highly unco-operative as the winds of 25-30 mph kept snuffing out the over 200 "luminaries" (candles in mason jars) that outline the route that the audiences take through the cemetery. It also made the dry-ice "fog" special effects that I had planned for my vignette "The Ghost of Annie McGregor Tells the Amazing Story of the Clan of McGrew" impossible.

Having been involved with theater since a very early age, I prescribe to the adage that says that a "bad dress rehearsal indicates a good performance" and my faith in this old saying was once again vindicated as, by opening night on Friday night, the wind had died down to almost non-existent...

But every production has its "glitches" and this was borne out on Friday night with the first audience group. . .

Because the audience groups cycle through the Walk every 45 minutes, it is essential that the guides move everyone along right on schedule. If a group takes too long cyling through, this causes a "pile-up" affecting the timing of all of the groups that come after...

By 6:15 pm, when we had still not seen the first audience group come over the hill from their dining venue to begin the tour of vignettes, the actors and the prop and "luminary wranglers" started to become concerned... When the first audience group showed up, it was easy to see why it had taken them so long, as there was one elderly lady trudging along with a "walker" among the group...

Now, we don't begrudge the lady her right to enjoy the Cemetery Walk but, the thing is that it is plainly posted on all of the posters and on the tickets (in all caps and bold font) and the ticket sellers are briefed to explain to all potential ticket buyers that there is a LOT of walking involved on the tour and, in fact, there are steep stairs that lead up from the dining venue and a steep path through Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Farm to the cemetery where there are NO cement or otherwise paved walkways, the ground is pock-marked with gopher holes and the ground is otherwise quite uneven. This is done to discourage those who might have walking diabilities that the Walk might not be the best event for them to attend...

My vignette was the last one on the line-up and, before that first group on Friday night even got to the vignette just before mine, I could see from my position the NEXT audience group coming over the hill to begin the tour!

As scheduled, the actors have approximately 45 minutes in between audience groups to go up to the RV "greenroom" (the use of which is graciously donated by one of the Society's members for the two nights of performances) parked at the top of the hill at the cemetery to sit down for a while, warm up, have a cup of coffee or some water, partake of the soup and bread of the same that is being offered to the patrons that is kept warm in a crockpot there, use the bathroom and/or simply converse with the other actors if they wish. 

While not "freezing cold", by October in our neck of the woods, it DOES start to get a bit "nippy" outside after the sun goes down so having this respite is fairly important for the actors' (and crews') comfort... However, when "pile-ups" like this occur (ESPECIALLY if it happens during the first or second "tour"), this cuts down on that time and makes it more difficult for those of us "out in the elements" who are, as it is, standing around for HOURS in the middle of a dark, cold cemetery at night...

But we struggled through for the remainder of Friday night like the troopers we are: The show MUST go on! ;o)

Coming out of the "greenroom" on Friday night between the third and fourth performances, I wrenched my ankle quite badly by stepping right on the edge of a drop-off of about 2 1/2 inches in the asphalt at the bottom of the steps which twisted my foot completely sideways. I limped through the last performance...

Fortunately, I was staying in town with a friend, Patty, who was so sweet and kept putting ice packs on my ankle through the night on Friday, so that, by Saturday's first performance, I was able to put some weight on it.

In the minutes before the first performance on Saturday as we were, once again, waiting for that first audience group, the two "candle wranglers", the prop and set person and I were acosted by a older gentleman whose property apparently adjoins the cemetery who was upset about our use of the mason jar "luminaries" as being (in his words) "an illegal fire hazard".

We assured the man that we have been using these luminaries for all of the five years that the Walk has been in existence and we've NEVER had even a "close call" with one of them. Also, our people are contantly monitoring all of the luminaries and that's in addition to the two guides of each audience group who are likewise monitoring the state of the luminaries as they pass every 45 minutes.

No amount of reassurances, however, seemed to calm the man who eventually walked off saying that he was "going to call the fire department who would will shut this event DOWN!".

Thankfully, the fire department seems to have more common sense than the man did and never showed...

About halfway through the event on Saturday, I noticed a group with flashlights coming up the path that was the "exit path" for each of the audience groups... Thinking that one the guides had mistakenly led their group "in the out path", I intercepted them before they got too far onto the cemetery grounds and, to my surprise, found a young lady with a group of about 15 or so 8 or 9 year-old girls -- all wearing "witch hats"!

It seems that the group was a "birthday party" for one of the young girls that had organized their own walk through the cemetery for that evening!! (Which REALLY made me WONDER what kind of a person has their daughter's birthday party IN A CEMETERY AT NIGHT?!?!?)

Fortunately, about that time, Pat (who is the volunteer who is more or less in charge of blocking off access to the cemetery to unauthorized visitors during the hours of the Walk) came along and headed the group of giggling, rambunctious girls off the site...

After the last performance last night, I gathered up my belongings and set pieces and went down to the Caretaker's Cottage to partake in a piece of homemade apple crisp and have a cup of coffee with my friend, Patty's (the same one who put ice packs on my ankle) daughter and her best friend who had attended because the vignette that I was doing was about her father's family -- many of whom are buried in the cemetery.

Afterwards, at about 10:00 pm, I drove the 35 miles or so home and put my feet up to relax -- the Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk having been "put to bed" for another year...