We rode our bikes through the Jason Lives Cemetery: Real-Life Location of a Horror Movie Icon. This is Part 3 of a series of Bike Trips around Madison GA that we’re in the middle of. As we said the other day, we at the Firefly, Bed and Breakfast near Madison GA occasionally get focused on a project. In this case it’s fixing up our collection of bikes, and riding them somewhere to see if we can.
The spooky “Jason Lives” cemetery is right here in Madison. Some of the scenes from the famed Friday the 13th series were filmed at this location, as well as Hard Labor Creek and a few of the usual locations in Covington.
At some point we’ll get rid of the nasty bikes, and keep the fun ones, but we’re not at that point yet. We’re big on Human Scale Living and Back Roads Travel, just for your information.
Bike Trips around Madison GA Underlying Rationale
Among the several excuses we had for doing this, we thought of four the other day: 1. Healthy fun. 2. Work on our collection of bikes 3. Scout out some bike trips to put our guests onto some fun. 4. See if we can do the rides, just to test our capability. We have a fifth reason 5. Do one act of subversive defiance against the “disposable society” by fixing up a bike that was meant to be tossed thus sticking it to the man.
The Bike
Here it is. It’s a rare and vintage Chinese “Forever” folding bicycle. We actually have two of these that are indeed folding, but they are surprisingly heavy. This particular one is pretty solid. The tires held air, and despite the rust, it unfolded well and the brakes worked fine. There are some moped-type brakes in the rear, and regular pads in the front.
The shifter, another one of those “grip shifts” was shot, however. This thing has a five-speed sprocket on the rear, and once we get it replaced it’ll be pretty speedy. We were able to get the gears into “middle” and it was fine.
It is a rusty mess, though, and not photogenic. Think of it as a “barn find” and if it were a 1988 Cutlass Supreme it would be a collector’s item, and we could do a better blog post. For Bike Trips around Madison GA this might be cosmetically deficient.
Forever Bicycle Company History
Just in case you care, there is a link down below on this.
This company started in 1940 and at one point was very well respected in China.
They are still around today, and AliBaba will gladly sell you a new one for just a few dollars. For a few more dollars you can get a lighter aluminum alloy version that is foldable and pleasant.
According to this article, the company exported an entire production line to Cuba in 1983 to help that fine nation with their transportation issues.
So, unless we hear otherwise, that is the story. This thing was made in Cuba, managed to be ridden across the bottom of the Florida Straits to Key West, probably in the dead of night, and then somehow made it to Madison. It may very well have been in a traveling circus, being ridden by clowns all over the country and left at the TA a couple of decades ago.
This exceptionally rare bike cannot even be found on Ebay. You, the reader, should be willing to pay us handsomely for it, because of its provenance. That must have been what caused the rusty rims. I can’t wait to get the other one revived.
The Trip through the Real Life Location for a Horror Movie Icon
We started in front of Gigi’s Hair Place and did some debugging. The bikes were the Schwinn, that we fixed up last week, and this priceless antique.
The route was: around the park, up the hill to Old Post Road (the Chero Cola sign) and then to Hill Street. We wound back to the cemetery, and looked at a few of the interesting monuments.
The whole thing took us the better part of an hour, but it is possible that it could have been done speedier, or slower.
The time on this was a Sunday morning, and everything in town was pretty sleepy.
The “Real” Trip through the Real Life Location for a horror movie Icon
We occasionally find ourselves in cemeteries in these little southern towns, and have learned a lot. The burial customs of the late Victorian era were such that if someone in your life passed away, it was a symbol of your place on the social dominance hierarchy that they be given the most elaborate monument that your budget could absorb.
There are several points of interest: A couple of confederate graveyards, including some “unknown soldiers” that made it into one of the local hospitals in this area, and the “segregated cemetery” which prior to the 1960’s was the local custom.
Jason Lives Cemetery: Exploring the Real-Life Location of a Horror Movie Icon
Okay we had a second reason for exploring The Cemetery. According to the links in the Link section, some of the scenes from the famed Friday the 13th series were filmed at this location, as well as Hard Labor Creek and a few of the usual locations in Covington.
Apparently the gates were built for the film and for sure are no longer there, but what is there is the little gray building on the right, which we couldn’t figure out what was.
Someone that remembers 1986 fondly may wish to do a better job of recreating some of these camera positions. The monuments are still there, of course. There is another link with some more information, for those extra motivated.
Who knew you lived in a spooky movie set?
These guys…
Technically these were crows, crowing at us from a tombstone, but as long as we are writers, we can make them what we want. We declare them to be ominous ravens, just right for Halloween, to re-re-re awaken the story of Jason.
Bike Trips around Madison GA Part 3: The Spooky “Jason Lives” Cemetery
That little bike was pretty solid, but it is advisable not to be tall and heavy. It is well suited for a Chinese person or female who is about 5-4 and 135 pounds. We will have to work on finding a bike for someone bigger. Also, the shifter is for the birds, and a new one is on order.
The second key learning was that a pleasant morning could be had riding around the old houses and old cemetery there on the edge of town, and that some history content could be had if one wanted. Also, some fun movie content could be had as well.
There is a story in here somewhere.
Do Over: The Spooky “Jason Lives” Cemetery
This was actually a very pleasant trip on a nice day. If there was a do-over we might have re-thought the Sunday Morning thing. When we were there, none of the sleepy downtown eating spots were open yet. Some lunch combination could have been done.
There are three more bikes left, and surely we can find three more bike trips in the area that might be fun as we fix them up. In the meantime, our offer still stands to haul away any junk bikes you may have because we’re assembling a fleet of bikes which we hope will be nice enough for the public to ride.
Side Project
If you are a fan of the “Friday the 13th Franchise” we challenge you to stay at the Firefly on Friday the 13th, go out to the very cemetery where spookiness happened, and celebrate the moment dressed in a hockey mask and appropriate other stuff. Hard Labor Creek Park, is also an option, since some of it was filmed out there.
We would even go so far as to provide the hockey mask. Are we digging the plan? We don’t see why this isn’t a “thing.” We’ll see you in May. Perfect cemetery weather. Be there in the square.
We have a couple of machetes around the place that we will let you use if they won’t let you carry them onto the plane.
PS: Artificial Lack of Intelligence
If you were to go to Chat GPT, the new, so-called spooky AI paragraph writer, it still thinks that the spooky cemetery in Covington was the main place. We’re therefore left with the prospect of the fans of the series showing up to the wrong place, which we can’t have of course. At some point we might make a trip to the “other” “Jason Lives Cemetery: Exploring the Real-Life Location of a Horror Movie Icon”.
PS: Did you know we were published authors?
We’ve explored every one of the little towns in this area. Coming soon to Amazon is “Little Southern Towns: The Nickel Tour” which is a light hearted view of the area, that we hope you will pick up on and share with everyone in your family, and they will share. There are a lot of trips like this which start out being one thing, and end up being another.
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Links and References
https://www.shine.cn/feature/art-culture/2103266556/
http://www.fridaythe13thfranchise.com/2011/03/filming-locations-correct-jason-lives.html
https://www.set-jetter.com/ontheset/jasonlives
