Cemetery Memories and Joey Ramone

The Grave of punk rock's Joey Ramone, Lyndhurst, NJ

As I attempted to snap a photo with my iPhone of the zinc Civil War soldier's grave marker I just stumbled upon in Palisades Cemetery, I got the dreaded warning that I was out of memory space! I ended up dicking around with my phone to free up space so I could capture more photos, along with some videos. (As an aside, if you’ve never heard the song Dick Around by the rock band Sparks, you need to listen to it here!

If you’ve never experienced such frustration, I envy you. It is not something you want to deal with in ninety-degree heat, or if you’ve just travelled a hundred miles to take photos (or both). This in fact occurred not twenty minutes from the time I first pulled into this cemetery, after finding that the memory card in my old Olympus PEN E-P1 (micro four-thirds) digital camera was full. 

Palisades Cemetery, Weehawken, NJ

I had slammed on the brakes in the shade of a tree just as I pulled in through the entrance gate, as there was a gorgeous mausoleum here with a marble angel statue on top. I have a 200mm telephoto zoom on this camera, which I brought for this specific purpose (you can’t zoom to a distant object with a camera phone – the zoom is digital, not optical, so you lose resolution quickly). I screwed with the camera and card, thinking maybe the write protect switch had gotten moved, but just could not get it to accept an exposure. Dead in the water. 

Gate relic of family plot, Palisades Cemetery

It was not like I could just go find a Walgreens and buy another SD card – I discovered a week ago that this camera is so old (2009 technology) that it’s internal processor can only handle a card with a maximum storage capacity of 16GB. I had filled up a card a couple weeks ago and was too lazy to download the images to my laptop, so I just ordered the cheapest, lowest capacity card available (120GB) online. This did not work. After the good folks at WebbCam (in Philadelphia) explained the problem to me, they sold me an old, used 8GB card, which worked fine. Kind of low capacity, and I hadn’t realized that I had filled it up so quickly. Standing in front of this mausoleum, it would not accept any new images. So, I threw the Olympus in the trunk and figured I would order some low-capacity SD cards when I got home. 

Gabba Gabba Hey!

Palisades Cemetery in Weehawken, New Jersey (near the Meadowlands sports complex), was actually my second stop. It wasn’t even on my to-do list. I just stumbled upon it as I found it across the street from my actual destination, Weehawken Cemetery (it may actually be a part of Weehawken Cemetery, depending on whether you use Google Maps or the Find-a-Grave ap). There were several zinc monuments there, along with some dynasty plots still bordered with original Victorian-era metal gates and fencing (unusual to see this). First stop, and my primary destination, was New Mount Zion Cemetery in nearby Lyndhurst, NJ, to visit the grave of punk rock legend Joey Ramone (a.k.a. Jeff Hyman). Joey, vocalist for the band The Ramones, died in 2025. (His solo album, “Don’t Worry About Me,” is wonderful, by the way, in case you’ve never heard it. In fact, he’s recorded the best version of What a Wonderful World in the known galaxy! Click to hear.)

Joey (Jeff) Ramone (Hyman)'s dad, Noel

Joey is buried in the New York Social Club plot in Lyndhurst's New Mount Zion Cemetery. New Mount Zion occupies the southern quarter of Hillside Cemetery (which also has several zinc monuments). Joey's dad, Noel, is buried next to Joey. Noel's companion was Nancy Lerner ("My Beloved Nancy"), and Noel's wife Charlott Mandell Lesher - also buried in this cemetery - was Joey's mom.

So I wanted to find Joey’s grave, pay my respects, and make a few photos and videos, which I did. There were a few interesting things in Hillside Cemetery (several zinc monuments), and there is a great diner near the Orient Way entrance to the cemetery, Colonial Diner, if you need a quick bite or a pit stop. You can almost picture the Ramones crammed into one of the red booths here in 1976, right? Jersey diners are the best!

When I left Palisades Cemetery to head over to the Meadowlands, I realized I never even went to Weehawken Cemetery across the street! Ah well, it didn’t really look that interesting. When I mapped out this area, my goal was first and foremost, Joey’s grave, and then any Victorian-era cemetery in the area. There appeared to be three over by the Meadowlands, a few miles away – Weehawken, Flower Hill, and Hoboken cemeteries. So off to Hoboken Cemetery in North Bergen, New Jersey, I drove – knowing full well that I had little or no media on which to record anything. I hadn’t even brought a film camera!

If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Maybe all the gods just hated me that day. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope." However, I think I just screwed up. I was ill-prepared. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Gabba, gabba, hey. Had I taken to heart the words of the great philosopher Charles Manson, “Total paranoia is total awareness,” I would have been better off. Would have checked the storage space on all my gear, battery life, and so on. I already knew that I had run out of film last week, so I didn’t even bring my Leica SLR film camera. Sigh. So with all this poor planning in mid-July, 2026, I drove two hours from Philadelphia in an attempt to blitz several cemeteries in North Jersey.

Hoboken Cemetery, NJ

After leaving Palisades, I hit these other nearby cemeteries that definitely warranted more time and memory than I had. Almost every image I shot at Flower Hill Cemetery had to be preceded by my freeing up iPhone storage by deleting aps or text messages with image files attached. Certainly sucked the joy out of exploring these new places. Hoboken Cemetery, next to the opulent gorgeousness of Flower Hill, was in poor condition. The grass was cut, but the tombstones were knocked over, the bronze elk from the B.P.O.E. (Elks) monument had either been removed or stolen – the place was kind of desolate and in a shambles. Not to mention mountainous. 

Pyramid mausoleum, Flower Hill Cemetery

Missing Bronze Elk

To say that Flower Hill and Hoboken cemeteries were built into a hillside is a rather mild description of these steep properties. The land grades up almost immediately after you enter either property by their separate Tonnelle Avenue entrances. I didn’t realize that I entered both from the rear (pun intended) until I drove up the steeply hilled properties to the upper ridge of Flower Hill where the magnificent mausoleums sat (right off John F. Kennedy Boulevard). I spent about a half hour walking amidst these structures with their amazing stained glass windows, statuary, and sculpted granite sphinxes. I realized I should have brought my Canon G11 point-and-shoot zoom camera to get better images of these amazingly colorful windows. Not bringing that super versatile pocket camera was not just stupid, it was stupid on stilts. Sigh.

Mausoleum window, Flower Hill

So in actuality, it seems that you enter Hoboken Cemetery from its main entrance off Tonnelle Avenue, but you should enter Flower Hill from it's main entrance on John F. Kennedy Boulevard. The dark green Flower Hill gatehouse is quite a lovely piece of architecture itself – I did not get a photo as I only noticed it as I was leaving - and a funeral procession was entering at the same time I was trying to merge into the steady stream of traffic. As I shot by a White Castle burger joint, I lamented having gotten that tuna hoagie at Colonial Diner. I LOVE White Castle burgers! 

I am contemplating a trip back here at some point, but honestly, the traffic is so dense and congested in the area that it makes driving such a chore. I was there just two days before the FIFA World Cup Final soccer match was to be held at the Meadowlands – I could not image what the traffic would be like around here at that point! This entire area is close to the highway leading to the Lincoln Tunnel so I would strongly suggest visiting these places on a weekend. If you do so during a weekday, avoid being on the roads anytime during rush hour. Or during road construction. Or a traffic accident. 

Intensely-designed fireman's monument, Flower Hill Cemetery

Pieta, Flower Hill

So much of my life revolves around memory. I photograph cemeteries, which is all about memory. I’m 65 years old, so I’ve got all my personal memories. Plus there is recording media - memory! I remember decades ago standing in line at Best Buy with an armload of blank CDs, blank audio cassettes, and blank VHS tapes. I remember thinking at the time, “This is weird. I’m standing in line here ready to spend all this money on memory.” Twenty-five years later, its still all about memory. Why is the act of recording things so important to humans? What are the broader implications? 

Maybe its to help us correct our future behavior. The liminal moments I experienced on this trip will hopefully benefit me – at least until I learn how to go back in time to warn myself about the future. How about I pack an extra memory card and free up space on my phone? Take a film camera for backup?  Also, why is it that I always find myself driving past a White Castle burger joint when I’m not hungry? How about, on my next trip, I look for nearby White Castle fast food places ahead of time and plan to stop at one for lunch or dinner? Then, I'm guessing, all the world would be happier in relative terms and we can all join in singing the Ramones' We're a Happy Family! (Click link to listen.)