Week 4 - Favorite Photo - Harding's Tomb

Week 4: Favorite Photo - Harding's Tomb

It’s impossible to pick one favorite photo but I chose this one because it reminds me of what it was like to be 9 years old in the summer of 1950 and be on our first great family adventure. We lived on Long Island, New York and that summer my cousin Bill joined us for a road trip to Marion, Ohio in August to visit my step-mom’s parents and see all the sights along the way.

 

Cousin Bill Collins and me, 1950

 

This photo commemorates a morning visit to the tomb of the 29th President of the United States, Warren G. Harding (b.1865-d.1923) and his wife, Florence Mabel Harding (b.1860-d.1924).

Bill Collins, my first cousin (on the left) and I had jumped out of the car when we arrived at the park. There was at least a quarter-mile long walkway between the parking area and the tomb. We ran ahead as kids do. Upon arriving at the circular memorial we ran up the polished granite stairs, stepped between large granite columns and came to a seven foot tall fence with ornate bronze bars made to look like spears with points on the top of each one. By the time my parents almost caught up with us, we had discovered that our heads fit between the bars and we knew that if our heads fit, so would our bodies. With a little squeeze, we were through and once inside, saw that the roof was open to the beautiful blue sky, there were more columns and a green grassy circular area in the center featuring two raised marble sarcophagi for the Hardings.

We ran around the inside and got a personal, close-up view of everything. It never dawned on us that we were doing something we shouldn’t be doing until my parents arrived and were amazed and slightly dismayed that we were inside the tomb. We posed for the picture above and were quickly ordered by my step mother to come out before some park person arrived and maybe made a “federal case” out of us being inside. Once we were back outside we looked all around and noticed that we were the only four people in the entire park. What a relief for my dad and step mother. Needless to say, I have never forgotten Harding’s Tomb in Marion, Ohio and how easy it was to slip in and back out. I wonder how many other children made the same discovery before or after us. Could my cousin Bill and I have been the only skinny kids inside during the last 95 years? (tomb built in the Marion Cemetery in 1926)