I'd been planning the trip for sometime now...an hour and one half from Loon
Lake here in Cohocton....but the drive was well worth the discovery.
Rod Serling's grave site in Interlaken, N.Y. was an experience, let me tell you.
When I was a mile out, the anticipation grew, I was hoping I would not have
difficulty finding the spot, but the map I had spelled out the location pretty
well.
Driving thru the gate and meandering thru to section G reminded me of many
funerals I have had over the years....the quiet, the peaceful surroundings...
being anxious to get to the right place. The last turn to section G where he
is buried had some pretty good washouts, but my car handled them easily,
and I pulled over and parked. Grabbing my camera and tripod, I headed up
the slight incline to where the map indicated where he rested....
I found rows of markers with death dates of the 90s', then the 80's...then
I hit the 70's and I knew I was very very close. Within thirty feet, a grave
that looked a little 'busy' with things around the stone jumped out at me.
As I walked up to the the grave, I was actually overwhelmed. Here he was.
Rod Serling, master of the short story, creator of the world famous
Twilight Zone, followed by Night Gallery. Wow. I was finally here.
I had followed him and Alfred Hitchcock for years...enjoying their stories
and most of all, their surprise endings to their stories. I have mentioned both
writers on the back cover of my new book Tales Unleashed coming out this
fall.
As I knelt down to inspect Rod's simple 12 by 24 grave marker...I could tell
that he has not been forgotten. Many who traveled here before me left little
tokens, coins, photographs of Rod. It's so pleasurable to know that others
have made the journey here before me... just to experience this guy and
the talent that he had. But what a short life, just 50. How much more could
he have written if he had lived to 70, 80 and beyond?
A flag also was present..he served in the Army, WW2. He had received
several medals during service in the Pacific.
So in the quiet, I sat my tripod, took some photos, spoke a few words to
this man, thanking him for his stories, in inspirations, and for his service
to the country.
Wikipedia has an excellent long biography of Rod. You should go there
sometime and read it. He had many
many talents indeed.
As you know, Serling was a big smoker...the following explained that
and his death:
Serling was said to smoke 3-4 packs of cigarettes a day. On
May 3, 1975, he had a minor heart attack and was hospitalized. He spent two
weeks at Tompkins
County Community Hospital before
being released. A second heart attack two weeks later forced doctors to
agree that open-heart surgery, though considered risky at the time, was in
order. The ten-hour-long procedure was performed on June 26, but Serling
had a third heart attack on the operating table and died two days later
at Strong Memorial
Hospital in Rochester, New York. He was 50 years old. His
funeral and burial took place on July 2 at Lake View Cemetery, Interlaken,
(Seneca County), New York.
His grave site is easy to find, and is lot G, plot 1044. He has
a simple 12” by 24” headstone.
Contributing factors to his early death included the fact that
he was a very heavy smoker,
his favorite being Chesterfield ‘long’ cigarettes. He endorsed
the brand and was rarely seen
without a cigarette in his hand, even while introducing some of
his TV episodes.
I wasn't at his grave site too awfully long. I almost felt like an intruder into this
space, a quiet and serene place....you could here a pin drop.
Thanks Rod. Perhaps I'll go back there another day. If you find yourself in the
Fingerlakes of New York, direct your car to that gate. It's a place that is indeed
where your imagination can abound, where time itself slows to a halt...it's
a place where the Twilight Zone has come to rest. SS
