Saturday Snapshot - Photos and a Story

I had posted this last Saturday, but Blogger was being a pain and removed all of the formatting. I didn't have time to fix it so I pulled it instead. I noticed a few people clicked on the post. I'm hoping they found nothing rather than the seriously mangled post. Anyway, I'm sorry about that.

My Saturday Snapshot this week is a little long. I hope it's ok. This collection of photos and story appeared on my other (now defunct) blog some time ago. It's such an unusual story that I wanted to repeat it here.

All of the melting snow in the last couple of weeks, reminds me of when we first moved in to this house. We got possession of the our house on March 1, 2009. There was still lots of snow on the ground, therefore, we didn't get a good look at all of the stuff that was left behind. As the snow started to melt and things were uncovered we realized that we had quite the job ahead of us. We started cleaning up as soon as we could, but it was still awhile before we found something interesting. Well, ok, at first it was downright scary. It wasn't until later that it became interesting and funny.

We saw something from the path that warranted further investigation. Here's sort of what we saw:

I say "sort of" because at that time it was covered in plastic and a large sheet of plywood. On top were several cinder blocks holding the whole thing down. As we got closer I said "That looks like a coffin". My husband wasn't so sure. While I stayed on the path, he went closer to get a better look. He lifted the plastic, looked underneath and said "That looks like a coffin". That was enough for that day. I ran back to the house.

The next day we approached the coffin again, this time with camera in hand (all of these pictures were taken that day). We uncovered "the box" and realized it was some kind of prop. At that point, we were even brave enough to lift the lid. But still, who would store this in their backyard and not take it with them when they moved? Or at least warn the new owners? Here are some more photos:

Inscription.

Another view.

Inside.

Close-up of contents.

By talking to some of the neighbours, we found out that the neighbourhood used to have a big Halloween celebration and this coffin and assorted signs were used in that celebration. We didn't know anything more than that, since many of the people who lived in the area at that time had moved on. Halloween isn't my favourite celebration so we were not about to keep it. Besides, it's much too heavy to store or move around. We couldn't even lift it. Since the previous owner left lots of other junk around as well as this item and didn't seem interested in retrieving any of it, we figured it was our to dispose of. I guess he could have been storing it for someone, but finding the owner, who more than likely moved away, was more trouble than we were willing to do at that time. We weren't too pleased to be saddled with all of the junk. Several trips to the dump later, the coffin was no more.

That was two years ago. So far, no one has come to the door looking for a coffin. If they had, I could have had another weird story to tell. ;)

How many people can say that they found a coffin in the backyard of their new house?

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. To participate – post a picture that you've taken (or one taken by a friend, or a family member) then add your link on Alyce’s site using Mr. Linky. (My apologies to Alyce for omitting this earlier.)