LETTERS: WHERE ANCESTORS ARE BURIED IS WHERE WE'RE FROM

To the editor:

I have just finished reading Joe Sullivan's column, "If you've never been there, you wouldn't understand." Believe me, I've been there.

I was born in Ellsinore, Mo. All of my ancestors are buried near there in a little country cemetery called Whitesmill Cemetery, which has a little country church and outhouse restrooms.

We also have the rocky, dusty, gravel road leading back to the cemetery between the pine and other tall trees in the Ozarks.

We too have the annual graveyard working day when everyone and his kinfolk come and bring a covered disk. We eat from each other's dishes regardless if we know who brought them or not, because we know they're kinfolk somewhere along the line. We all eat, fellowship and catch up on the latest family news. Sometimes we meet someone in the family that we have never met before.

I don't know why it's called graveyard working day, because I never see anyone doing any work. Maybe it's because they take up an offering on that day to help pay for the work that is done during the year to keep up the maintenance on the cemetery.

Like Sullivan said of Gov. Mel Carnahan, we weren't born exactly right in Ellsinore but closer to Ellsinore than any other town around there, so Ellsinore is our burial ground, just as it was for Carnahan. He went from the Governor's Mansion back to where he came from for his final resting place. The little Ozark community of Ellsinore is a place "if you've never been there, you wouldn't understand."

ROSE (GOOCH)

MUSGRAVE-QUINN

Gordonville, Mo.