Geezer at rest

On Bruton Boulevard, just a little bit north of L.B. McLeod Road, ye rabbits will find Orlando's historically black cemetery.


Buried within its confines is one Howard E. Porter, Sr. (31 Aug 1948 - 25 May 2007).


But, those who knew him, didn't call him Howard. They called him "Geezer."


No, he wasn't an old fuddy-duddy.


The name was a corruption of the word "geiser," which was the best description his classmates had of his leaping ability on the basketball court.

That ability got Geezer a scholarship to Villanova, where he led the basketball team to the NCAA finals back in 1971.


Then, he went to the NBA and played center and power forward for the Bulls, Knicks, Pistons, and Nets.


Later, he settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he worked as a parole officer, and where he was mysteriously abducted and beaten to death last year.


Sadly, this Geezer died too young.

Distribution of graveyards

Well, rabbits, this week yours truly conducted a very unscientific survey to determine which were the most active graveyards in this little corner of heaven.

I say "unscientific," because all I did was keep a tally while reading the obit page of the Orlando Sentinel for seven straight days--a total of 94 entries.

Here are the results with commentary:

51% of obituaries made no mention of a final resting place at all. I can only assume that this includes the increasingly large number of cremations, as well as families who simply want their privacy.

20% were either out of the area (particularly at the national cemetery in Bushnell) or out of state entirely. This definitely reflects the transient nature of Central Florida's population. Very few of us are actual natives.

That left only 29%, distributed as follows:

8 at Woodlawn in Gotha--hands-down the "winner" in the busiest graveyard category.

4 at Osceola Memory Gardens down in Kissimmee.

2 each at Greenwood-Orlando, Glen Haven Memorial Park, and Winter Garden.

1 each at Chapel Hill, Congregation of Reform Judaism (never heard of this one before!), Edgewood-Apopka, Ocoee, Palm, Pineywood, San Pedro Catholic in Winter Park (also never heard of this one before!), Temple Israel in Gotha (is this new, too?), and Washington Park.