A monumental arrest: Teens nabbed for spooning in cemetery in 1928

Jimmy Tomlin, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·2 min read
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May 13—HIGH POINT — Where's the most unusual place you ever made out when you were a teenager?

The movie theater? Under the bleachers? In the backseat of a '57 Chevy?

Well, no offense, but Paul Davis may have already clinched the award for Worst Place To Make Out, and it happened nearly a century ago, when the amorous High Point teen took his young lady friend to, ahem, the graveyard — in the middle of the night, no less.

Hey, nothing says romance like a few hundred tombstones in a dark, creepy cemetery, right?

The year was 1928. In the wee morning hours of July 16 — 2 a.m., to be precise — High Point police officer J.R. Davis was making his nightly rounds when he spotted a car parked at Oakwood Memorial Cemetery. This meant one of two things: Either the ghosts had learned how to drive, or someone was trespassing on city property.

The patrolman investigated and found two teenagers — Paul Davis and his girlfriend, Nellie Beasley of Richmond, Virginia — sitting on the ground, cuddling with one another as they leaned back against one of the graveyard's many headstones.

The High Point Enterprise reported that the two teens were "spooning" — an old-fashioned term, similar to necking, which means kissing and embracing passionately.

"Spooning among monuments in a cemetery proved costly to a young man and woman who were caught in Oakwood Memorial early this morning," The Enterprise wrote.

Oh, and there was alcohol involved.

According to the newspaper account, the girl was charged with being drunk and disorderly; she was fined $20 and costs. The boy was charged with being drunk and disorderly and violating the Prohibition law, because he was found to have whiskey in his possession; he was fined $45 and costs.

Both teens were also charged with trespassing on city property, but those charges were generously dropped.

"Judge (Lewis) Teague and Archie Myatt, the prosecuting attorney, both felt the fines that had been imposed already were sufficient punishment," The Enterprise reported.

Not to mention the sheer humiliation of being arrested for making out in a cemetery, and then having the whole sordid tale reported in the newspaper.

And then, presumably, the two teens had to go tell their parents what had happened. That was probably far scarier than hanging out in a cemetery.

jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579