December 12, 2014 (Friday)
On Wednesday I conducted the funeral of Mrs. Betty Moses at the Charlie Marshall Funeral Chapel in Aransas Pass, after which I hitched a ride with Manuel Buentello in the funeral coach that he drove to the Pawnee Cemetery in Karnes County for the 3:00 p.m. burial service.
It was a cool and cloudy afternoon when we assembled at the graveside for Scripture reading and prayer, bidding farewell to Mitch Moses’ companion of 62 years.
In the past, the nearby road would have been quiet, just like the beautiful rural countryside that surrounded us, but my voice was drowned out most of the time I spoke, by the sounds of trucks and cars on that road. You see, Karnes County is at the heart of the current oil boom in the Eagle Ford Shale project. The Eagle Ford Play is estimated to contain 3 billion barrels of oil. So there is a constant stream of vehicular traffic on all roads in the area.
The noise associated with traffic is usually just background noise that our hearing sort of filters out, and, in our everyday life, we normally don’t pay much attention to it. But graveside services at cemeteries near busy roads call attention to road noise nearby as preachers strain to be heard and small groups of people try their best to hear. I have had this experience at several cemeteries, some of them in the big cities and others in rural areas. Some of them are in our own area of the Coastal Bend.
Most of these cemeteries were created when people rode horses and drove carriages to them for the graveside services. Back in those days many of the services were conducted entirely at the cemetery or grave site.
The wonderful thing about living in those days was the serenity of the outdoor experience. Folks were treated to a quiet environment, interrupted only by the singing of birds or the clop clop of horses. In addition, back in those days, at night one was treated with a spectacular view of the stars.
The price of progress is high.