I was born in Crestwood and lived in Midlothian since 1948 when I was one year old. I went to Orchard Hill Kindergarten for two years (1953 & 54). Each Fall we took a daytime field trip to Bachelor's Grove. I was just a little kid but I remember those trips like it was yesterday. Back then, you could drive all the way up the road (yes, it was an abandoned, but still usable, gravel road then) and the school bus drove right up to the cemetery.
There wasn't much in the way of signs of vandalism then and most of the old headstones and monuments were still intact. Most of the grassy areas of the cemetery, and many of the graves were still tended. I remember the pond between the cemetery and the Midlothian Turnpike (it was a paved 2-lane country road then). The teachers told us to stay away from the pond because it was "bottomless." Even in the daylight, it was a rather spooky place, especially in the late afternoon as shadows lengthened while we waited to re-board the bus to take us back to Orchard Hill.
In my early-mid teen years a couple buddies and I would go out to the cemetery sometime in the weeks before Halloween. By that time (early 1960s) the road had been chained off at the entrance from the Midlothian Turnpike and was partially overgrown with bushes and branches from the nearby trees. We parked in the Rubio Woods (if memory serves me) Forest Preserve, cross the 2-lane Midlo Turnpike, and walk about a quarter mile down to the cemetery. As darkness began to fall we would sit among the tombstones and tell ghost stories. Sadly, by then there were several signs of vandalism. One time, a Cook County Sheriff vehicle drove up, asked what we were doing, and he told us. He said they were looking for a murderer and we'd better get out of there. I'm sure he made that up just to get us to leave...but we didn't question it; we grabbed our jackets and ran the quarter mile back to the Midlo Turnpike, across the road, and were gone!