Roadside Memorials & Crash Site Markers..

[shadowmoss]

Packy: James Dean?

[Packy]

Packy: James Dean?

You know, that was a good guess! I will post a photo of the Dean Crash site, as soon as I get a new battery for my camera. What the site here is of is an intersection on hwy 287 about 3 miles north of Rock River, Wyoming. Basically, the middle o' nowhere. But in 1957, on July 3, there was a tourist attraction--a petting zoo-- off to the left, down that gravel road. A vehicle towing a trailer pulled out onto the roadway, headed south as shown in the photo. A 1957 Chevy driven by Greg Nisonger with his wife, Judy Tyler as a passenger, approached the slow-moving trailer at speed and in order to avoid rear-ending it, Nisonger swerved into the oncoming lane and skidded broadside into the path of a Northbound '53 or 54 Chevy. Judy Tyler was killed instantly, Nisonger died the next day at a hospital. A passenger in the 53 Chevy was also killed. Who was Judy Tyler? The 24-year-old actress had recently finished filming a moooveee called "Jailhouse Rock" playing co-star to Elvis Presley. The film was released after her death. She had also been a recurring character on Howdy-Doody or some kids show. Ironically, she had also been in a group photo on the cover of Look or Life Magazine, with several other Hollywood actresses, including Jayne Mansfield. Mansfield was killed in a similar crash in Mississippi almost ten years to the day later. That was the crash where a very young Mariska Hargitay was asleep in the back seat. (Shudder). Can post a photo of that crash site, too. Probably, because Jayne Mansfield was better known, and the crash site is in the Southern USA, there is a home-made roadside memorial at the crash site where she died. But, no marker at the site in Wyoming, that I know of. Another one I might post on here is the Don Rich Crash Site in Callyfornya. He was Buck Owens' side man, and was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1974, along the Pacific Coast Highway, if memory serves me correctly. It was kind of a mysterious, exact-cause-undetermined incident, as a motorist happened upon his crashed cycle in the road, and no witnesses were identified.

[LDAHL]

The County government I work for is responsible for clearing various things from the highway right of way, including the memorials people occasionally leave there. This has resulted in the occasional angry, tearful phone call.

[catherine]

There are crash site markers around here. I've never visited one. DH thinks it's a very weird phenomenon, almost like superstition (e.g. Santeria or tribal ritual). I don't agree necessarily, but I don't think I would ever leave flowers or candles at a crash site. And I have no interest in seeing where famous people lost their lives--it's kind of morbid. When we went to LA for a couple of months in the mid-90s, the first thing my MIL/BIL did was go to the scene of Simpson crime scene (I stayed home). Then again, I don't even visit cemeteries of loved ones, whereas DH feels guilty if he doesn't go to his mother's gravesite every holiday.

[ToomuchStuff]

I don't see as many in the city anymore, but haven't been to the country lately. I think in part, people do move on, in part the city isn't as good about mowing (grass can get waist high, where one car went over two days after the road was reconfigured), and in one case, the property owner put up a fence, after YEARS of the family of the deceased, trespassing to keep placing markers.
Never visit any, no reason to.
I realize it is about closure, but to me it seems as strange as seeing a new car with a in memoriam sticker in the rear window. (so their life insurance paid for your new toy?)

[iris lilies]

The County government I work for is responsible for clearing various things from the highway right of way, including the memorials people occasionally leave there. This has resulted in the occasional angry, tearful phone call.

Be thankful it's only a phone call where you are.

where I am, it's rioting and looting when the totem to Michael Brown, strung along several yards in the middle of the road, is perceived to be desecrated.

[goldensmom]

There are crash site markers around here. I've never visited one. DH thinks it's a very weird phenomenon, almost like superstition (e.g. Santeria or tribal ritual). I don't agree necessarily, but I don't think I would ever leave flowers or candles at a crash site. And I have no interest in seeing where famous people lost their lives--it's kind of morbid. When we went to LA for a couple of months in the mid-90s, the first thing my MIL/BIL did was go to the scene of Simpson crime scene (I stayed home). Then again, I don't even visit cemeteries of loved ones, whereas DH feels guilty if he doesn't go to his mother's gravesite every holiday.

Two of my siblings were killed in car accidents. One just down the road the other several miles away. I remember each time I drive by the 'crash site' but it has never occurred to me nor would I ever erect any kind of memorial. It is not something I feel I need to memorialize in a concrete way. I know one family that has picnics at the crash site and that is just weird.

[catherine]

Two of my siblings were killed in car accidents. One just down the road the other several miles away. I remember each time I drive by the 'crash site' but it has never occurred to me nor would I ever erect any kind of memorial. It is not something I feel I need to memorialize in a concrete way. I know one family that has picnics at the crash site and that is just weird.

I am so sorry for you and your family! It must have been absolutely devastating for you.

[kib]

I've noticed New Mexico seems to have the most crash site memorials I've ever seen in my travels. And they are quite elaborate too, true folk art. I used to stop and read them, and take photos. The last one I took pictures of was for a teenage girl who jumped from the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge outside of Taos. Very sad and poignant...

In Mexico proper there seem to be two sorts of roadside shrines, small crosses or floral markers for accidents, and more elaborate ones which are usually erected as homage to saints. The practice seems to be that someone with money may build a shrine almost the size of a mausoleum by the side of the road in honor of their loved one (who didn't necessarily perish right there), but then everyone else is welcome to leave memorial offerings to their own people as well. This is rumor, but I've heard these sites are considered off limits to construction desires.

[Packy]

Nice, kib. I like that one.