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Roadside Memorials

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  • #31
    Reminds me of a funny story I read about The Beatles (of all things). In their early Beatle years, George Harrison said he was driving with John Lennon in the winter with snow showers off and on. Lennon said "What a bunch of crazies, having a picnic in the snow!" Harrison said he looked, and then replied "That's a nativity scene, John." The guy was blind as a bat but wouldn't wear his glasses when he was young.

    (quotes are paraphrased)

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    • #32
      I knew of a spot in the country that I used to drive by a fair amount with a makeshift memorial where a girl was killed by a drunk driver. Knowing what had happened, I saw it as a reminder of the consequences of drinking and driving (though it's not a reminder that I need).
      "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

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      • #33
        Originally posted by tabibito View Post
        I'm in two minds about them.

        One here some years agone was put in place by friends of a driver who turned right** at an intersection at an officially estimated 140 km/h (88mph). Hit a stobie pole, ripped the car in two. When I checked him for injuries, the right side of his head looked OK until I touched it - nope. no hope of resuscitation - not when the side of the skull is essentially powdered. Never understood why so many people considered him an innocent victim. Never understood why such a large group of mourners should gather daily for more than a month.

        (** that would be the equivalent of a left turn in America)

        Others that I have known of though - yes. I think perhaps it is sometimes a matter of trying to make sense of senseless circumstances, of trying to come to terms with the horror of sudden and irrevocable loss.

        Some places are officially set up as memorials, in part as a warning.
        Depends on what happened. If the person had a stroke while driving that forced unusual bodily reactions that led to that kind of crash, then I'd say they couldn't be in control of that. If they were drunk, or just a reckless driver then that is a different story.

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        • #34
          Much like most funerals and memorials they are as much about helping the living cope with their loss and their grief, as it is about the recently deceased.

          I'm always still in trouble again

          "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
          "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
          "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

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          • #35
            Originally posted by Ronson View Post
            Is it just me, or does anyone else find these disturbing? I don't recall ever seeing them when I lived in California. But out here in Missouri, apparently, people will erect a cross with a person's name on it, make a sort of shrine on the side of a road, where a loved one died in a car accident.

            Personally, I don't want to remember when/where a person died prematurely. If I was going to build a shrine at all (which is unlikely) it would be at some place they loved.

            Anyone else?
            I remember one at an intersection about half a mile from my house where an idiot went through a red light at high speed and took out a whole family. A memorial seemed very appropriate in that case.

            But they don't seem to be that common.

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            • #36
              Originally posted by Cerebrum123 View Post

              Depends on what happened. If the person had a stroke while driving that forced unusual bodily reactions that led to that kind of crash, then I'd say they couldn't be in control of that. If they were drunk, or just a reckless driver then that is a different story.
              Hoon Driver - still in high school
              1Cor 15:34 Come to your senses as you ought and stop sinning; for I say to your shame, there are some who know not God.
              .
              ⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛
              Scripture before Tradition:
              but that won't prevent others from
              taking it upon themselves to deprive you
              of the right to call yourself Christian.

              ⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛

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              • #37
                Originally posted by Stoic View Post

                I remember one at an intersection about half a mile from my house where an idiot went through a red light at high speed and took out a whole family. A memorial seemed very appropriate in that case.

                But they don't seem to be that common.
                Far more common than it should be though. And yes - in circumstances like that, memorials for the victims are entirely appropriate.
                1Cor 15:34 Come to your senses as you ought and stop sinning; for I say to your shame, there are some who know not God.
                .
                ⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛
                Scripture before Tradition:
                but that won't prevent others from
                taking it upon themselves to deprive you
                of the right to call yourself Christian.

                ⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛⊛

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                • #38
                  Originally posted by Stoic View Post

                  I remember one at an intersection about half a mile from my house where an idiot went through a red light at high speed and took out a whole family. A memorial seemed very appropriate in that case.

                  But they don't seem to be that common.
                  I think a simple white cross or other such marker is appropriate - when they get big and gaudy, they can be so distracting as to contribute to more accidents.
                  The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

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                  • #39
                    Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                    I think a simple white cross or other such marker is appropriate - when they get big and gaudy, they can be so distracting as to contribute to more accidents.
                    As I recall, it was mostly flowers. Not too distracting.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      The Drive by Truckers wrote a song about it. You wanna hear it? Here it go:

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZJtsSGR2sI


                      Plastic flowers on the Highway
                      Bits of glass for the machine to sweep away
                      Had to pass it on the way to where i's going
                      The next few minutes, I drove a little slower



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                      • #41
                        And then there is Canuckistan...


                        44_censored.jpg
                        For a raccoon.

                        I'm always still in trouble again

                        "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                        "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                        "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Originally posted by Ronson
                          But out here in Missouri, apparently, people will erect a cross with a person's name on it, make a sort of shrine on the side of a road, where a loved one died in a car accident.

                          Personally, I don't want to remember when/where a person died prematurely. If I was going to build a shrine at all (which is unlikely) it would be at some place they loved.

                          Anyone else?
                          I think it's rather patchy in Missouri. They're all over the side of the road between my speed bump of a village and Osage Beach. If you go the other direction you don't see any on the main road and only one off on a side road. I don't exactly keep an eye out for them, but I've driven all over central MO and honestly haven't seen any outside of the last 12 miles of the road that connects St. Louis to Osage Beach and the aforementioned side road.

                          I will admit that the lighted ones can be a bit of a help at night. Most of the fatalities that occur are from people missing a curve, often because they were driving too fast for their level of knowledge of the road (first time on the road in question you need to keep it around 45. When you have every twist and turn memorized then you can get up to the speed limit), and hitting a tree. That stationary light gives them a bit of warning.

                          I personally don't like them, but they apparently give some sort of closure to the families. Right before mother's day a girl ran off the road and got killed just down the road from my parents' house. Her mother had a cross up before I even knew about the accident, and every day on my way to work I'll see her walking in the ditch toward the memorial.

                          Besides, even if people don't put up memorials they make them out of landmarks. I can point out the utility pole that replaced the pole my uncle hit years before I was born, the spot on the road another uncle slid off the road and died of carbon monoxide when his exhaust got clogged even more years before I was born, the bridge where my cousin hit the guard rail when I was two, and the spots where three other cousins died in wrecks because my dad makes it a point to tell me when we're driving by those spots and shows me roads or terrain features to remember it by. He's made it clear that my brothers and I shouldn't expect roadside crosses if we die in wrecks and even he has a way of memorializing those sites.

                          Originally posted by Cow Poke
                          ...it seems like it's mostly a Catholic/Hispanic thing, as I've seen similar things in Texas.
                          I don't think it's tied to religion or ethnicity. We're mostly Protestant around here and most of the people I knew with roadside memorials came from Protestant families. We also didn't have much of a Hispanic population around here until fairly recently, and most of the crosses I drive by every day are 20+ years old, longer than most of our Hispanic population has been here, except for one put up in May (by a white atheist (no idea why she chose a cross other than possibly tradition)) and one put up a couple of years ago by a family I know nothing about.

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                          • #43
                            Some interesting comments on roadside shrines/memorials. These modern manifestations represent beliefs and behaviours that go back a very long way in human societies.

                            Those who die prematurely before their allotted time can be particularly resentful and the belief that the dead in general must be propitiated has very deep roots in human cultures.
                            "It ain't necessarily so
                            The things that you're liable
                            To read in the Bible
                            It ain't necessarily so
                            ."

                            Sportin' Life
                            Porgy & Bess, DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin

                            Comment


                            • #44
                              Originally posted by Hypatia_Alexandria View Post
                              Some interesting comments on roadside shrines/memorials. These modern manifestations represent beliefs and behaviours that go back a very long way in human societies.

                              Those who die prematurely before their allotted time can be particularly resentful and the belief that the dead in general must be propitiated has very deep roots in human cultures.
                              Or it could merely be a desire to memorialize a lost loved one taken without warning.

                              I'm always still in trouble again

                              "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                              "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                              "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
                                Or it could merely be a desire to memorialize a lost loved one taken without warning.
                                At one level. However, the need to propitiate the dead in various ways has very ancient roots in human societies.
                                "It ain't necessarily so
                                The things that you're liable
                                To read in the Bible
                                It ain't necessarily so
                                ."

                                Sportin' Life
                                Porgy & Bess, DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin

                                Comment

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