The New Road

Ghetto shrines

I was walking to the office this morning from where I parked and I walked past a telephone pole covered in flowers, pictures and teddy bears. One bear in particular stuck in my mind as it was suspended about ten feet off the ground. I wondered how anyone, without a ladder, would do that.

The company parking garage is right across the street so I asked the gaurd there, a friend of mine, who does the work on that pole. He called these things 'Ghetto shrines'. Sometimes it's a telephone pole, other times it's a cross in the ground or an electrical box. These are covered in flowers, bears, pictures, even CDs in one installation I saw. They commemorate people who died there.

The guard went on to tell me the story of what happened. A guy in a wheelchair stole a truck, then got into a high speed chase with the cops. When he saw they had him boxed in he put the truck into reverse and they, in his words 'lit him up'.

Now there is this telephone pole where that's the closest thing to where he died. And it's literally covered all the way around, up to about six feet, in flowers. And not dead flowers, but bright beautiful fresh flowers. And there is that bear, nailed in it's gut about ten feet up. The security guard says it's some thirty-something lady that does the work. Nailing that bear, I suppose using a ladder, ten feet up on this pole.