The last 19-- Headstone??

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I know for years they made headstones with 19-- for the surviving spouse.

I'm curious - when this practice was discontinued?

1970? 1980?

Seems to me when everyone figured out that 19-- wouldnt work for headstones.. it would have been a wake up call. Obviously someone must have thought HEY!! Wait a minute - in 1980 if they were putting 19-- on the headstone...

-- Whitney (Y2k Whit@aol.com), December 21, 1998

Answers

It ought to be possible to do a cemetary survey to see how many headstones from the late 1800s had to be amended when the spouse survived until 19xx. Easier to turn an 8 into a 9 than a 19 to a 20, though!

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), December 22, 1998.

It seems like there's an article on the internet on just about everything. Would you believe...

http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19980615bstone4.asp

"2000 Problem nothing new to tombstone makers"

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), December 22, 1998.


It ought to be possible to do a cemetary survey to see how many headstones from the late 1800s had to be amended when the spouse survived until 19xx.

Yea very useful exercise, you'd get arrested! One corpse to another, ohh someone just walked over my grave, oh thats ok its just N doing his y2k survey.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), December 22, 1998.


Now wait a minute!

My wife and I go to country cemetaries to picnic quite often!

Quiet natives, few disruptions, the ants have a MUCH more interesting place to go.

We also enjoy reading the headstones, looking at what the person must have seen in their lifetimes, noting the year distribution of deaths (Flu, Cholera, Smallpox epidemics as we are both amateur historians), etc.

CR

-- Chuck a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 23, 1998.


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