I keep noticing those bizarre memorials-usually for accident victims, by the side of the roads. usually, the contain a photo of the deceased, along with childhood toys (teddy bears, usually), helium ballons, a 'sign-up" board (with messages to the decease, e.g. ‘we luv ya’, “see ya soon”, etc. Sometimes, there are candles, flowers, all kinds of crap.
my huch is that, as America becomes a secular society, people need to find substitutes for the old religious send-off aprties (funerals). So we get piles of junk left by the side of the roads. A few weeks ago, i noticed one such shrine in cambridge, MA-a young man killed on a bicycle-his friends had left beer bottles, candles, a photo, helium ballon, etc. Who cleans these things up? and, are we fated to see more of this weird display?
In one of Carl Hiassen’s books, one of the characters went around collecting the shrines for his own decorations. I just consider it another aspect of power-grieving. People want to show that their grief is greater than yours.
Don’t know what they portend, but the one near my place never gets cleaned up, except when it’s freshened.
Some kid took the curve too fast, lost control of his car and slammed into a tree killing him and (I think) his girlfriend. The anniversary of his death must have been recent, because I noticed the flowers were new a couple days ago but they just stay tied to the tree and fall away. The fake ones just get dirty and look like crap after a bit.
He died awhile ago, the flowers have been there (and freshened) since I moved here… almost 4 years ago.
Drives me nuts. I feel for the parents or whomever is setting this up, but why go to where he died?
We had an accident here a few weeks ago where some kids were driving drunk without wearing seatbelts. They were all ejected from the car; one died at the scene and one died a few days later. Their friends have erected a 12 foot cross where the truck came to rest - about 10 feet off the road. At least it is far enough off the road that it won’t cause another accident of itself, but I find those roadside “memorials” disturbing. What does a parent tell a small child when the kid sees balloons on the side of the road? “No, honey, it’s not a party.” And if you are going to go to the trouble, please make sure it is not ratty looking. Faded plastic flowers do not say “devotion” to me.
I hate these things. It is power grieving and they’re ridiculous.
There’s one by my house that really bugs me… It was for a kid who stole a car, was being chased by the cops, and sped around a corner into a tree. Once the police tape went down this stupid monument went up. A huge one. With sympathy slathered across the 6 o’ clock news. What the heck? When your kid dies dragging an old lady out of burning wreckage, then he gets a memorial. When your kid dies running form the cops in a stolen car, you have a quiet little service and don’t involve the entire community. I don’t care that your stupid criminal son died!
It was about a year and a half ago, and the shrine is still reasonably well tended.
I suspect they are a newly evolved type of life, or something very close to one. They reproduce by being a distraction (in a place that has had at least one accident, so the probability that it’s a dangerous driving area is higher), causing more accidents, and more shrines.
I use them as a caution sign when I’m driving through a new area… if I see one I know to be a little more cautious lest the same fate befall me.
There’s a few of them around my neighborhood; I don’t have a problem with the small, subtle ones that are truly there simply there for loved ones’ remembrances, it’s the huuuuuge ostentatious ones I can’t stand (i.e. the aforementioned power grieving)
Aside: does anyone else get the mental image of a huge, muscular bodybuilder screaming “I’m so much sadder than you it hurts!!!” when they think of the term “power grieving?” Or is that just a product of me consuming too many “Xtreme” products?
I once started a thread with the story of how a neighborhood (Salishan - Tacoma Washington) gangbager was shot around the corner from my house and the Bloods set up a lavish monument, with a styrofoam cross, photos laminated on foamboard with inscriptions, plastic fruit and those votive candles with icons on the frosted glasses, and whenever I’d walk my dog by there he’d sense its importance and want to mark it. Damn dog was going to get me capped.
(somewhere along this thread someone will link to the obligatory Onion story)
Superstitious tacky crap.
They’re pretty common (as in, around almost every banking corner) on the highways here in New Mexico, and there’s an actual word for them in Spanish (which I don’t remember). There was a highway construction project in the northwest part of the state a couple years ago, and one of the things that was demanded of the contractor was to survey and record where all of them were, and replace them at the conclusion of the project.
I gave my gf a very nice bouquet the other day. They were " a cut above", way nicer than what you typically see. When she eventually asked where I got them, I told her they were from a roadside shrine. For a nanosecond she believed me, then we had a good laugh.
Parents seem to have particular beliefs about their offspring and cannot be swayed. 
There is some guy’s hat hanging on the tree he hit on my route home. I am neither annoyed or impressed.
I wouldn’t have thought to look, but since you mention it…
From the Onion.
But seriously, isn’t there normally some kind of time limit that these are allowed to be left up? I think around here, they get cleaned up pretty quickly.
In my state, Missouri, it seems that they are eventually replaced with a disk shaped marker on a wire rod. The disk is approx 8-10" in diameter and states the name and date in black print. I’ve seen these on State and Interstate highways. I don’t know how soon after the death this occurs, but I know there’s a Home made PVC pipe cross on 370 that’s been there for at least a year.
In my area, the only way they come down is if they are neglected by the shriners. Otherwise, it’s almost as if people believe some evil will befall them if they take one down that’s been there for like 6 years. They never go away.
I don’t have any reason to take them as anything other than sincere. Don’t have a clue why the OP would label them weird and bizarre.
They also often cause me to pay more attention to my driving.
It seems like whenever I’m able to see the name of the person being memorialized, probably 80% of the time it’s a Hispanic name, which makes me wonder if it’s a cultural thing.
Weirder than the roadside memorials: rear windshield decal memorials. A whole bunch of those showed up when Selena was killed, but then I started seeing them for a lot of people who died before their time. Usually “RIP (Name) 1981-2004” or something like that. Usually it’s a Hispanic or African-American name and driver. The only time I’ve ever seen anything like it on a whiteymobile is for Dale Earnhardt.
Wow, these sorts of shrines have been common on the Big Island (where my US home is, despite the current posting in Egypt) for … well, I assumed since people started driving around on the island, although if someone knows more Hawaii history than I do, please feel free to fight my ignorance.
Maybe because I am on Hawaii as a haolie outsider, not to mention as a professional expat, I tend to respect what the locals do. (And take a warning from shrines as well – here is a potentially dangerous spot on the road.) I think the shrines are quaint, to be sure, but I’d never think of them as tacky or as something to ridicule. The Big Island is a small place (I think the total population is still not a whole lot over 100,000), very Christian, and obviously with a heavy Shinto influence as well. To me, the shrines just make sense as part of the local culture.
It is enlightening to read different viewpoints.
I’ve never gotten up close enough to read any of these shrines, but I see them a good bit here in NE Ohio. The only one that I actually know what it’s for is one near the railroad tracks down the street from the high school where 2 girls were killed on their way home from school many moons ago.
It is old and ratty - not sure how much it gets looked after. However, there is actually a nice memorial for the girls at the school itself, consisting of a little bench and a garden, that is diligently kept up to this day. I think that is much nicer than the very sad memorial on the train tracks.
On the other hand…I saw another memorial the other day on another street around here. There was a rather large stuffed animal of some sorts sticking out of the brush on the side of the road. It was one of those carnival-style types of stuffed animal with little balls of styrofoam inside. My first thought was "No way that actual stuffed animal was sentimental to the person who was killed. It’s just a piece of junk and I see those all over the place. Someone only placed it there because it was cheaper to put up than a real, nice stuffed animal. "
Anyway, my conclusion was that this was an example of “power grieving” because no way is anyone going to put their kid’s actual favorite stuffed animal on the side of the road. They just wanted something cheap and huge out there.