Chapter 8: Marking the Past For the Future: Roadside Shrines and Recursivity

In the United States, driving and the road evoke mythical and epic images of highways along the coasts, Route 66, American towns with antiquated churches and downtowns, road trips, and mountains and rolling hills. Travel by car has been associated with a quest for freedom, power, and exploration of the landscape and self. Yet the reality of most everyday travel is that driving in a car is a mundane event in which we move from home to work, work to the grocery store, and back home. We might sandwich some trips in between our ordinary mode of traveling, but rarely do we pass by scenes and objects that captivate our attention. Instead, in our modern landscapes we primarily encounter gridlock, strip malls, and billboards. One exception to the monotony of the road is the roadside memorial. As I drive or ride as a passenger and encounter the occasional roadside memorial, typically with a cross and other periphery decorations, my heart momentarily sinks and my attention is briefly arrested. Who died there, and how did they die? Who placed the memorial, and do they visit this site often? My response is usually fleeting and more affective than cognitive—feeling of a sense of dread and apprehension. I then pass by and the flicker of feeling falls into the background. Still, I wonder why I am fascinated and troubled by these objects.