The Real Graveyard

   One of the creepy/adorable features of the fictional town of "Danforth" in my new YA romcom "Runaway Daydreams" was taken directly from my hometown, Piscataway, NJ.

When I first passed by Piscataway High School, I did a double-take. "Is that a graveyard?"

I backed up and took another look. Yes, it was. The Fitz-Randolph Cemetery, like its fictional counterpart, is "right next to the football field." There must be a story behind this, but I couldn't find it. Maybe, when building the high school, they realized late in the game that they'd need more space, and just worked around the little graveyard, which they enclosed. 

How many high schools have their own graveyard, right on school property? It's just one of Piscataway's charming bits of weird-New Jersey-ness.