A similar view from 2008.

This was before the two most popular tourist attractions in that cemetery, the Bird Girl, which was featured on the cover of "The Garden of Good and Evil," and the grave of song lyricist par excellence Johnny Mercer, whose grave has no headstone but a marble bench instead. Bird Girl had to be moved to the Telfair Museum in Savannah, however, after the book and movie became such a big hit. Mercer's bench, while interesting and a destination for music lovers, didn't have the kind of draw that required relocation.

Spanish moss is not really scary or depressing. Actually, when seen in a color photo it is pleasing and peaceful-looking. I cannot imagine a live oak tree without a festoon of Spanish moss, particularly down here in coastal Alabama.

I've never been to a Southern cemetery but the Spanish moss really fires my horror-movie-fan imagination!