Show notes
Taking a break on the finishing touches on Episode 8: Identity to round out the year, with a new show, Episode 9: Taphosphere! This one is F.U.N!
When I met cemetery internet sensation, Caitlin Abrams, for the first time this fall, I felt like I had known her forever. We “knew” each other, as only two people who share and interest boarding on obsession can - our shared love of historic New England cemeteries unknowingly connected us through the ether - this world of like-minded cemetery weirdos that I call the “TAPHOSPHERE”.
Caitlin has taken the world by storm with her videos of cleaning historic gravestones throughout VT and eastern NY, while telling the stories of the people in those graves (her work can be found on TikTok @Manicpixiemom and Instagram @stonedinnewengland).
In September of 2021, she was kind enough to show me some of her cleaning work at the Old Pawlet Cemetery in Pawlet, VT and the two of us gabbed and jabbered away about all things cemetery! And we made some very interesting connections between some gravestones I had seen over in NH to what we saw in the Old Pawlet Cemetery — Caitlin is going to be making some TikTok videos describing what we discovered! [CROSSOVER ALERT!!!] You can find a teaser for Caitlin’s upcoming videos about HERE and more to come after the new year.
Just some notes about the episode:
—if you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall while two weirdos nerd-out over something they both really like, this conversation
between two new/old friends about cemeteries, is for you!
—Caitlin often refers to “VOCA” doing work in the Old Pawlet cemetery: VOCA stands for the Vermont Old Cemetery Association, a
volunteer group that encourages the preservation and restoration of Vermont’s cemeteries. For more information about the group,
please check-out VOCA’s website.
—the cleaning chemical Caitlin refers to is called “D/2” and it is a “biological solution” this is, as Caitlin says in our conversation the
“gold standard for safe gravestone cleaning”.
For those of you who would like to know more about Caitlin Abrams work, she’s done a number of interviews with professional news outlets (I prefer to keep my “amature” status so that I may one day compete in the News Outlet Olympics) that you can listen to here:
Vermont Public Radio (VPR)
Insider.com
WCAX TV
VICE Channel
Episode 9: Taphosphere
Gail Golec
Download
The Old Pawlet Cemetery
Zerubabbel Collins
Daniel Branch
Experimental Soul Effigy
Caitlin Abrams
Jonathan Willard
Willard Stone, Close-up
Cleaning Kit
Special Thanks for this Episode:
Interviewee: Caitlin Abrams
Follow Caitlin’s work on TikTok @Manicpixiemom and Instagram @stonedinnewengland
Photos: Gail Golec
Music: provided with permission by Epidemic Sound
“Only the Wise Know” by Headlund
“Evening Song”
“In the Spirit of Cannes” by The Flax
“Bobby Swing” by Bladverk
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