"In Memory Of..." (with birth & death dates) on rear car windows...is this a Texas thing?

[yellowdogintexas]

I swear in the past say 3 or 4 months it seems like I am seeing more and more of these decal things on the back windows of cars/trucks/vans etc.

It your basic "Tombstone" lines..In Memory Of" or "In Memoriam" then the person's name and then the birth and death years. Weird, weird.

They are in that white decal stuff that you see that has the kid's name and their sport/activity of choice with a figure showing the activity, or the stick figures of the family and the pets.

[fizzgig]

1. i see those in colorado from time to time

they are usually in the back window of large pickup trucks in ornate lettering that is barely legible

[XemaSab]

2. California thing too

:shrug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. It's because we are a culture that fears death and celebrates dysfunctional relationships

[Zomby Woof]

4. It's a gang thing in SoCal

Personally, I find it one of the stupidest trends of all time - using a vehicle as a memorial marker. We're sorry for your loss, but is it really our business? Must you push your private lives and losses on the rest of us? I really don't give a shit about your gangbanging son/nephew/cousin/whatever, so knock off the memorials already. You live by the gun...

I thought nothing could surpass in tackiness and narcissistic grief-overindulgence than plastic flowers and teddy bears on the side of the road, but I was wrong.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Next it'll be little plastic suction cup signs "Dead Gangbanger On Board"

[Zomby Woof]

7. Brilliant!

As a memorial to your idea, I am going to start putting tombstone stickers on my rear window of all the ignorant drivers I have run into utility poles because their egocentric car decorations irritated me.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. What they (meaning the government) should do is make running assholes into utility poles legal.

Hell, even make a game out of it, or offer a bounty.

[unsavedtrash]

6. Alabama too. n/t

[last_texas_dem]

8. I've never understood these, either

I mean to say, I've never understood the significance of the placement of them on cars. I first saw one of them a few years ago, and it was for a guy I went to high school with who had died in a car crash, so I thought maybe it being on a car had some sort of morbid significance, like those plastic crosses placed on the highway for people who have died in traffic accidents. But I soon started seeing them for people who had died from drug overdoses or suicides and realized the placement on the car didn't have any real significance. All I can say is, I don't really "get" them but I guess everybody mourns in their own way.

[Left Is Write]

9. No, I see it here in Boise also.

[graywarrior]

11. Florida, too.

It's big in Florida.

[YDogg]

28. Yep, real big in FL.

I find myself behind the same two everyday ... and see them all around town.

One of them is for a grandfather who lived to be 85. I always find myself thinking, "That's a pretty good run."

[flvegan]

32. Huge in Florida, yes.

And I don't recall seeing it much even as little as a few years ago. Seems like a current trend.

[DarkTirade]

49. I can recall seeing them as far back as the late 90s

here in Florida.

[Kali]

12. Is this a Hispanic thing?

from some of the comments and thinking of descansos (crosses or shrines) on the sides of roads...???

I live close to the border but can't recall the memorials on cars in particular so I don't know.

[last_texas_dem]

13. That's interesting

I had no idea that the crosses on the sides of the road had a history with Hispanic people. Probably just because the names I've seen on them have tended to be "white", but it could definitely be something white southerners have adapted into their culture (I'm not sure if these highway crosses are common outside of the southeast and southwest, but I wouldn't be surprised if they've spread throughout the U.S.).

In terms of the car memorials, the first one I saw was for a black guy, and the others I've seen have been for whites, but their origin could come from an Hispanic culture. I think I remember reading on here that the stickers in the back of windshields with stick figures of the members of the family (mom, dad, two kids, dog, cat, etc.) had started with Hispanic people.

[qnr]

14. I used to see them all over the place in Turkey, years before I started seeing them in any numbers

in the US.

[Kali]

36. well you know what they say about the Turks and driving

:rofl:

Maybe it's just a continuation of our "bumper sticker" communications style in this country.

[qnr]

48. heheh yeah, I saw some of it first hand n/t

[lost-in-nj]

15. I have seen the roadside shrines

here in NJ. I also saw them as far south as Maryland.
I have yet to see the window things

lost

[Kutjara]

16. It may be more of a Catholic than a Hispanic thing.

I grew up in Ireland, where such roadside memorials were a common sight. Often, they were elaborate construstions of stone or concrete, sporting statues of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. On particularly dangerous corners, there'd ultimately be a small group of such shrines, often to people who died by crashing into the first shrine. The Irish government stepped in a few years ago and removed many of these deathtraps.

I've seen similar monuments on the roadsides in Greece, Spain and Italy.

[last_texas_dem]

25. Interesting

Regarding this post and the two above, I had no idea how widespread these roadside crosses were. I had always identified them as a "redneck" (not meant as a slur) cultural phenomenon of the American southeast. It's interesting to learn that they have a presence in other parts of America and the world.

[Kali]

37. I agree - interesting

I did not know it was a "redneck" thing in the southeast, nor the other parts of the world. I know it as as primarily a Mexican phenomenon.

[susanna]

51. (OT) Lots of crosses in Oakland and Wayne counties in Michigan, too.

I never knew they were everywhere else! Wow. I actually learned something tonight... :-)

on edit: added (OT) and "of crosses" to the subject line. Response to earlier poster talking about roadside crosses. Don't want to confuse the original post. Sorry.

[krispos42]

33. I've seen a couple of crosses in rural Minnesota

Usually in a ditch. I'm assuming it was for traffic accident fatalities.

In South Dakota the state DOT puts up a highway sign with an "X" on it at the location of a DUI fatality.

There was one spot, I think on Highway 34, that had six signs in one cluster. :-(

[Ilsa]

47. Crosses where people died? Of course, you can't leave them in hospital rooms

or operating theaters or emergency departments or anywhere else. Texas had to fight with a family that wanted to leave their shrines up. Most of the time, they are removed after awhile, but these people wanted them left at an intersection FOREVER. Sorry, but that's what cemeteries are for.

[Critters2]

17. I've never seen one. What's the point of putting that on a car? nt

[BarenakedLady]

18. Never seen those here in the North East.

:shrug:

[crim son]

19. I see that here in Maine, now and again.

I guess some people find it helpful, or comforting or whatever.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

24. Yup, see it down heah in P-Town, too.

;)

[Kutjara]

20. They always seem to be on the backs of SUVs here in SoCal.

I used to wonder if the vehicle was actually the deceased's tomb, and opening the rear door would reveal a satin-lined grotto, containing the cremated remains of the dearly departed, surrounded by flowers, photos and candles.

I suppose it makes sense in the car-culture capital of the world: if you spend you entire waking life in a car, why not spend eternity there too?

[LaraMN]

21. There are alot of Native Americans in my town with those decals.

I was wondering if it was a cultural thing, as well...

[Thirtieschild]

22. See them a lot in New Mexico

Usually on pickups, often Hispanic names, but that may be because most vehicles here are pickups and the county is majority Hispanic. Don't remember seeing one in Georgia.

[ulysses]

23. seems to be a rural white thing in GA.

:shrug:

[KatyaR]

26. I've seen a few here in Oklahoma--mostly kids under the age of 3.

Creeps me out every time. Why would anyone want to do that? :shrug:

[YellowRubberDuckie]

27. They are all over Oklahoma.

It's a little creepy.
Duckie

[AlCzervik]

29. i see them up here in norcal.

[YDogg]

30. Descansos

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/rant/descansos.html

[YDogg]

31. Florida's "Drive Safely" memorial signs

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041130/NEWS/411300394/1004

http://www.dot.state.fl.us/TrafficOperations/Operations/FAQ-signing.htm#Q1

[bluethruandthru]

34. I've been seeing alot of these lately in the DC area.

Most have been on cars driven by African Americans. I thought maybe someone inherited some money and it was a way of saying "thanks" for the new car. :shrug:

[krispos42]

35. Have not seen any in Minneosta, if that helps any. n/t

[triguy46]

38. In OK. Right next to their Calvin pissing on (fill in the blank) decal.

[Oeditpus Rex]

44. Hey, if someone you didn't like died

you could combine the two.

:D

[CC]

39. I've seen them around here

MD,DE & PA since I am close to the two state lines. I think a big part of the reason there are more, and will be even more is they are easy to do/get now and do not cost very much. Most around here are for kids killed by a drunk drivers or in another type of car crash. Seems to be friends more often than family that has them too. The age range tends to run from teens to mid twenties of the friends that put them on their cars. I have seen one car that the mom has both sons on. They were killed together in a crash. I am in a rural area so it is a bit easier to know what happened when you see one.

I look at it as their way to work through their grief and try to keep the memory of the person they cared about alive. Not my thing but whatever works for them.

[Pacifist Patriot]

40. Plenty of them here in Florida.

[Cabcere]

41. Nope, we have 'em here in VA, too.

:shrug: At least, we have them in the rural area of VA where I live...not sure about NoVA.

[NewWaveChick1981]

42. I've seen them in NC too, mostly on pickup trucks.

:shrug: I agree. Very weird. :yoiks:

[Mad_Dem_X]

43. They're everywhere - they're annoying

Why would you put that on your car? It's just going to peel off eventually. :shrug:

[Blue_In_AK]

45. I've seen a few of them up here, also. n/t

[Gold Metal Flake]

46. It's everywhere is SoCal, and it's not there for the driver.

It's there for the person following behind. If the driver were so eat up with grief that s/he could not spend five minutes away from a reminder of his/her "grief", then they would simply tape a picture of the dear departed's headstone in front of the speedometer next to the baby pictures.

No, that rolling grave marker is for us, the follower. It is for us to see. The grieving one must inform us of the near and dear departed one. We must share in their grief, and be impressed that one could grieve so much that they would adhere a semi-permanent tribute on the back (waaaay in the back, waaaaay behind and out of sight of the driver) of their gruesome hoopty, where it bakes in the sun and slowly peels off. The driver might have forgotten that they stuck the damn thing on the back window two years ago, but we must pay attention.

It's important. Very important. No one can dare say it is not. It is emotional, therefore it must be legitimate and you must respect it as parts of it peel off and flutter away in the fast lane at 75 MPH.

[susanna]

50. I've seen it in Detroit, too.

Always wondered about it myself. Mostly because if I did it for all I've loved and lost, that back window would be filled solid. And I'm not super old. :shrug:

[bbernardini]

52. I see them in SE Pennsylvania area quite a bit. nt