Recycled

Some traditions are held onto a bit more tightly than others—both literally and figuratively. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

(00:27):
of Curiosities. The British Royal family sure does love it's ceremonies.
For example, the late Queen Elizabeth birthday has been marked
each year by something called the Trooping of the Color.
Every June, four hundred soldiers, four hundred musicians and two

(00:49):
hundred horses marched through the streets from Buckingham Palace to
horse Guards Parade. The Royal Air Force even makes an
appearance as their planes fly overhead. It's a massive spectacle.
Much like Garter Day, Guard Day honors those who have
gained entry into the most noble Order of the Garter,
an order of knighthood founded in thirteen forty eight by
King Edward the Third. For the modern day ceremony, the

(01:11):
monarch and knights, all decked out in velvet robes and
plumed hats, marched from Windsor Castle to St George's Chapel,
a service is held and new night companions are inducted
into the order. The ceremonies are part of England's long
and storied history, dating back hundreds of years, but there's
one annual activity that does more than honor those within
the royal family's inner circle. In fact, it serves a

(01:33):
very specific and much needed purpose. It all started eight
hundred years ago during the Middle Ages. Swans were considered
a versatile bird in England. Not only did ownership of
them signify a person's status in society, but they were
also really tasty. They were often served around Christmas time
as part of the royal feasts. Henry the Third fed
his guests forty swans during his holiday parties in twelve

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The swan, specifically the mute swan, was first brought to
Britain by Richard the First during the Crusades. At least
that's how the story goes. Ornithologists, however, believed the swan
is indigenous to the region. Swans were the livestock of
the rich, and the government went to great lengths to
protect both the animals and the status they signified. In
fourteen eighty two, the Crown introduced the swan mark, a

(02:20):
series of nicks carved into the beaks to denote ownership.
According to the law at the time, only the truly
wealthy were allowed to own these majestic birds, and were
required to purchase swan marks at a steep price. Any
swan lacking a swan mark on its beak, regardless of ownership,
officially belonged to the crown. The courts grew packed with

(02:41):
ownership disputes, as well as people defending themselves against accusations
of defacing property. Anyone who tried to carve or scratch
away at a swan mark or counterfeit their own could
face serious jail time. Unsurprisingly, the rich didn't buy the
birds because they enjoyed looking at them or even eating them.
To own a swan, especially more than one, meant a

(03:04):
person was of a higher status than everyone else. But
swans were only valuable if they were healthy, and the
royal family, the Windsors, have taken the health of their
swans seriously for hundreds of years. They began an annual
tradition called swan upping, which one member of the family
joins a team of people called swan uppers to row

(03:25):
canoes up and down the Thames, collecting swans and checking
up on their well being. A swan upping is still
practiced to this day too, usually at the end of
July each year. The swan uppers, clad in scarlet rowing
shirts and white slacks, row along the Thames for five days.
Upon spotting a female swan and her signets or baby swans,

(03:45):
a cry of all up is heard and the boat's
head to their position. The uppers then weigh the bird
and notes any maladies or injuries, especially among the signets.
Signets are of course more vulnerable than the adults and
often need greater care. Signats are tagged with I D
numbers that track their ownership based on parentage. But any
swans owned by the crown are left alone, and just

(04:07):
as was the rule hundreds of years ago, the Queen
or king has the right to claim ownership of any
unmarked mute swans found in open waters. Today, the swan
upping ritual isn't about social status or even the royal
family exercising their control over the local animal population. It's
about conservation and education. Swan upping protects the lives of

(04:28):
Britain's wild swans. School children are invited to participate each
year as a way to introduce them to the importance
of environmental conservation. Sure, some of the Crown ceremonies may
look like ostentageous pageantry, but swan upping has evolved into
something more than that. It's a tool for protecting the
future of England's wildlife and teaching children to do the same,

(04:51):
because not saving the planet, well that's for the birds.
When you get right down to it, Almost all important
life decisions are centered around money. Where you go to college,

(05:14):
what kind of car you drive, what kind of town
you live in, and what kind of house you move
into are all predicated on the amount you have to spend.
After the stock market crash of nineteen nine, everyone started
pinching pennies. Breadlines formed around corners and down city blocks.
People lost their homes and jobs, companies shut down, and
the country entered a tailspin. Certain administrative projects, even relatively

(05:38):
inexpensive ones, were canceled, such as the maintenance and upkeep
of small cemeteries around the country. But one enterprising homeowner
knew just how to keep the tombstones of an important
Civil War cemetery shining for all to see. And inject
some much needed stimulus money into the government in the process.
It all started on June fifteenth, eighteen sixty four, in

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the city of Petersburg, Virginia. Only months earlier, Ulysses S.
Grant had been promoted to lieutenant General of the Union Army.
His goal was to attack the south from several different
angles in an effort to capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital
of the Confederacy. Grants was facing troubles as the various
armies under his command were being led by generals that
had been appointed to him for political reasons. These men

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were not experienced in the art of war, and so
they lost often, but Grant pushed on, never surrendering, never retreating.
He continued to advance his position against Robert E. Lee's
forces as he worked his way towards Richmond. The city
of Petersburg was essential to his plan as it was
home to a junction point where five different railroads met.

(06:44):
Capturing Petersburg meant cutting off supply and communication routes for
the Confederates, forcing Lee to surrender Richmond or fight Grant
out in the open. From June fift until the eighteenth,
the troops under General p. G. T. Beauregard of the
seuth fended off the Federal Army of the North. Union
forces were unable to capture Petersburg as attended, but that

(07:05):
didn't stop them from trying. The Siege of Petersburg, as
it was called, lasted until March of the following year,
just over nine months. In the end, the Confederates could
not endure. Lee's forces were decimated, and the North captured
Petersburg on the two weeks before Lee would officially surrender,
bringing an end to the war on April nine of
eighteen sixty five. Thousands died on each side, though the

(07:29):
siege cost the Union a far greater number of casualties
than it did the Confederacy. The Northern soldiers were buried
in Poplar Grove Cemetery in Petersburg, their graves identified by
wooden markers. Over time, however, those wooden grave markers disappeared.
Constant exposure to the elements caused them to rot and
fall away, leaving behind no trace of who was interred

(07:50):
six ft below. Eventually, though, the government stepped in and
had all the wooden grave markers replaced with marble headstones,
much sturdier than would As the years passed, the cemetery
continued to be maintained with the help of government funding,
keeping each headstone cleaned of dirt and standing perfectly upright.
And then the market crashed in twenty nine people lost everything.

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Belts needed to be tightened. That meant places like Poplar
Grove Cemetery where suddenly left to decline. To save money
and cut down on mowing, the city modified the gravestones
one more time. Each one was cut in half, with
the top halves the pieces engraved with the names of
each soldier placed flat on the ground. But what to
do with the blank bottom halves. Well, one man had

(08:33):
an idea. His name was Oswald Young, and in nineteen
thirty four he wanted to build a house in Petersburg, Virginia.
He purchased two thousand, two hundred discarded headstones for forty
five dollars a piece that was d dollars in nineteen
thirty five, which balloons to roughly one point two million
in today's money. The exterior walls, the walkway, and the

(08:55):
chimney were all built using the headstones, each a slightly
different color from the other. The patchwork construction gives the
home a stitch together Frankenstein's monster kind of look. If
these walls could talk, they would probably have a lot
to say about what happened during the Siege of Petersburg.
With two thousand, two hundred Union soldier gravestones used to
build a civilians house. I wouldn't be surprised if there

(09:17):
has been a ghost or two spotted shambling across the
lawn from time to time. After all, the tombstone House
of Petersburg would make a perfect haunted house at Halloween,
don't you think. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,

(09:39):
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show, and you can learn all about it
over at the World of Lore dot com. And until

(10:00):
next time, stay curious.