CROSSROADS
ROAD CROSSES
Increasingly, we are seeing more and more
Crosses and Roadside Memorials
marking the site of fatal car crashes and memorializing the
victims.
42,646 PEOPLE WERE KILLED
IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN 2006 IN THE USA.
The
memorials, which often consist at first of just a few flowers or
wreaths, are sometimes followed by a more permanent marker such as
a Cross or a plaque. These are occasionally made more personal,
with names and mementos.
The sites are there to mark the place
where the person died and to warn others not to let it happen to
them. It started as a Catholic tradition, but it's so diffused now
-- it's no longer just a Catholic practice.
It becomes a kind of a portal where people
can go and speak to the dead person. They come and they leave
things for the person.
The practice of making descansos
came to the New World with the Spaniards. Also known as
crucitas or memorias, descanso means
"resting". The practice comes from the tradition of placing stones
where pallbearers rested between the church and the cemetery. Later
the stones were replaced with crosses.
The modern interpretation commemorates
those who have died in traffic accidents.
In the 1940’s the Arizona State Highway
Patrol began using white crosses to mark the site of fatal car
accidents. This practice was continued by families of road-crash
victims after it had been abandoned by the police.
It may be that roadside memorials mean
more to families than do cemeteries. At the very least, there is an
immediate reminder of the person in the site of his death. These
'sacred places' however, unlike cemeteries, sometimes serve only as
a place for immediate grieving and some are not
maintained.
. Another aspect of these memorials is
that they serve as a warning to other road users, both as a general
reminder of the dangers of driving, and to mark a place where a
fatal accident took place.
Some states have programs regulating
Roadside Memorials. A few years ago, The Indiana Legislature voted
down a bill that would have taken down existing memorials and
establish regulations concerning them.
To find this
cache, look near the big tree.
We want to document/
monitor the condition of these Crosses. Therefore, in order to
claim a smilie, take a photo of the cross with your GPSr next to
it.
This Cross is located
next to a Big Tree.The container is a 35mmfilm can, about eye
level.
THANKS TO TRICKWORM FOR LOCATING THIS
CROSS!
go gators!
A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher,
Ridin' on a midnight bus bound for Mexico.
One's headed for vacation, one for higher education,
An' two of them were searchin' for lost souls.
That driver never ever saw the stop sign.
An' eighteen wheelers can't stop on a dime.
There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the
highway,
Why there's not four of them, Heaven only knows.
I guess it's not what you take when you leave this world behind
you,
It's what you leave behind you when you go.
That farmer left a harvest, a home and eighty acres,
The faith an' love for growin' things in his young son's heart.
An' that teacher left her wisdom in the minds of lots of
children:
Did her best to give 'em all a better start.
An' that preacher whispered: "Can't you see the Promised Land?"
As he laid his blood-stained bible in that hooker's hand.
There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the
highway,
Why there's not four of them, Heaven only knows.
I guess it's not what you take when you leave this world behind
you,
It's what you leave behind you when you go.
That's the story that our preacher told last Sunday.
As he held that blood-stained bible up,
For all of us to see.
He said: "Bless the farmer, and the teacher, an' the preacher;
"Who gave this Bible to my mamma,
"Who read it to me."
There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the
highway,
Why there's not four of them, now I guess we know.
It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you,
It's what you leave behind you when you go.
There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the
highway.