I love it when people find a way to put a new spin on an old favorite, and that's just what's happening to the historic cemetery tours conducted by my very close personal friends, John Jordan and Dick Duckoff.

For years, these two history buffs have paraded thousands of tourists through Manchester's many burial grounds, where they have dug up — maybe “dug up” is the wrong phrase here — where they have rooted out tales from the crypt regarding the high and mighty in Manchester.

This time around, they can leave their marching shoes at home.

There will be no need to march, since — this coming Friday — the two guides and their guests will tour the Valley Cemetery while piloting Segway human transporters. Think of it as the “Technology Meets Tombstone Tour.”

“I knew that John and Dick did the walking tours of the cemeteries,” said Rick Tyson, who is the manager at Segway of Manchester at 42 Hanover St., “and I wanted to reach out to them last year, but back then, we didn't have the approvals to take the Segways into the cemeteries.

“Once we got permission from Peter Capano at Parks and Recreation, I called John and Dick. Neither of them had ever ridden a Segway before, but they said they were interested, so we went out to both the Valley Cemetery and Pine Grove and we taught them how to ride.”

For the record, John is 75 and Dick is 76. Some of you might think a cemetery would be the perfect place to teach men of their years how to ride a Segway, but Rick claims their training went off without a hitch.

“They were great,” he laughed. “A lot of our customers are 50 and over — we even had a rider on one of our standard tours who was 84 — and there were times when John and Dick were doing things on a Segway that I wouldn't do.”

Still, safety is paramount — helmets are mandatory, for instance — and those who sign up for the tours will watch a 15-minute safety video before mounting their own Segway for hands-on training that can run up to 45 minutes.

Now the Segway ride alone would make the tour worth taking, but John and Dick — in an effort to spice things up — are deviating from their standard tales about the upright, pious and devout denizens of Manchester to include the kind of nefarious characters I like to celebrate in this column.

For instance, during Friday's Valley Cemetery tour, you'll learn about:

--The Stark Mill paymaster who was called “a creature merely wearing the human form” for his violent behavior toward woman and children who worked in the mill.

--The personal friend of heavyweight boxing champions John L. Sullivan and James J. Corbett (who was also the first bookie in Manchester who had a telephone).

--The disciplinarian schoolteacher who “made warm friends and bitter enemies and was the perfect master of sarcasm and ridicule.”

--The Manchester Mill agent who called President Franklin Pierce “a drunkard who came home to New Hampshire to die of the delirium tremens.”

-- The wealthiest man in Manchester, of whom it was said, “in the winter of his life, his passions are now subdued.”

If those items don't pique your morbid curiosity, consider the joys of hearing those stories while riding on a Segway. The cemetery tours will run every other Friday beginning this week. The cost is $79 per person, which includes the Segway rental and training, but you have to register in advance. To do so, call 218-8150, or contact the store by e-mail at info@segwayofmanchester.com.

Better hurry. This tour is a lot like the cemetery.

People are dying to get in.

John Clayton is the author of several books on Manchester and New Hampshire, including his newest title, “Remembering Manchester.” His e-mail is jclayton@unionleader.com.