Discombobulated
Dave Carter ·
Dec 10, 2010 at 9:55am
Driving through a tiny little town in east Texas and seeing that by far the nicest buildings there are the bank and the funeral home leaves me a bit unnerved somehow. Fortunately, there were no stop lights or stop signs to slow my exit.
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Jun '10
Re: Discombobulated
You can tell the values of a society based on its architecture. The Romans and Greeks emphasized public buildings based on their ideas of civic virtue. Medieval Europeans built great cathedrals during a period quite rightly known as the Age of Faith. Contemporary Americans build banks and sports stadiums because we value wealth and entertainment. The funeral home is an anomaly. All it says is that the undertaker is the only one in town with absolute job security.
May '10
Re: Discombobulated
I wonder if that is the opening scene to an adventure/mystery movie or horror.
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Hey now: I live in a small east Texan town and my late father was a mortician and my sainted mother still works at the bank.
Let's not have us a throw down here, Dave...
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Hey Dave: Did you wash your rig? And, then did it rain?
Jun '10
Re: Discombobulated
You're only in trouble when the bank and the funeral home are in the same building. "Go down to the vault" could take on a whole different meaning. Then there would be all that confusion about the meaning of "going under." Then there are all the cross promos: Free checking for deceased customers, is only one thought. Then there are the advertising tie ins: "Interest rates to die for."
May '10
Re: Discombobulated
Hmmm, money and death. No nice churches? Clearly, the patron god of this town is Hades.
Nov '10
Re: Discombobulated
My father has been observing the funeral parlor phenomenon for decades: As you drive through the small towns of the Mid Atlantic states, the largest, best maintained house in town is always the funeral parlor. He's been commenting on this for probably forty years or more.
I like this idea. To extend it, the beautiful domestic architecture of the 19th and early 20th centuries indicates that at that time we valued home and family. Now we tax families so harshly that private ownership by normal families of nice houses is no longer possible. And even more than banks and sports stadiums, we build shopping malls and strip malls, and our families spend free recreational time out shopping.
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D.B. Little, my best to your family, and I wouldn't for a moment question your mother's sainthood. No attempt at a throw down necessary, but what do you folks do for recreation, ...or should I ask?
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David, I didn't wash the rig, but I thought about it mighty hard. Woke up this morning to a blanket of fog around the truck stop, which was a close enough call for me. By the way, I'll be in Cape Girardeau tomorrow for a few hours around lunch time. If you need some rain, I'm there for ya.
Jul '10
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All funeral homes look good from the outside. It's when you go inside.
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Kennedy, the term "Hades" is a bit harsh, no? In fact, I was talking with Mayor Dante' and he said that it's a lovely little town. He said they are redesigning the place into a series of concentric circles. "And over there," he pointed, "we're going to open up a Hotel California at..." at which point I got my bayou born buns back in the truck and left in a cloud of diesel smoke.
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Dave: Where in the megalopolis will you be?
Aug '10
Re: Discombobulated
David If Carter has to keep driving , I'd be honored to buy him a small tossed salad , an icedtea and a red bull to go . Dont be filling him with any cheeseloins . No carp or buffalo sandwiches. Andrea I hope you know that the first Mizzou Rico feat was a lunch in the Cape.
Re: Discombobulated
cheeseloins? Buffalo sandwiches? Maybe at Buffalo Wild Wings.
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I'm sorry, but the words "cheese" and "loins" do not belong in the same sentence together, let alone the same word. David, I have a delivery at the Proctor and Gamble plant north of Cape Girardeau. I do normally try to build a couple of hours in the schedule so I can enjoy a little truck stop on the south side of town that has a Huddle House and a delightful staff. Luckily, the schedule works out well tomorrow. I'd be happy to have a little Rico lunch, but no cheese things. If you folks have suffered a drought, I'll get the truck washed too.
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No apologies necessary, Dave: There is no way you could be fool enough to badmouth a Texan's mother.
My sainted mother-- of course-- goes to church and my father is gone, but undertakers are actually a lot of fun: no one has a more morbid sense of humor.
And actually in east Texas, if you didn't see a church in town, you just went through too quick. Anywhere in Texas, for that matter.
One of my favorite sites is outside of Amarillo, there is what I was told to be the biggest cross in the country, four stories high maybe, and right down the road the biggest road sign I have ever seen in my life, five stories maybe, advertising some strip joint in town. Truckers, of course, are welcome, FYI. I think they even mentioned truck parking on site.
Amarillo: where awaits you a liquor store and church on every corner...
Aug '10
Re: Discombobulated
David Limbaugh
cheeseloins? Buffalo sandwiches? Maybe at Buffalo Wild Wings. · Dec 10 at 1:24pm
Cheeseloin may be a northern Missouri thing. Fried pork tenderloin sandwich with cheese. Buffalo is a kind of carp. Buffalo wild wings, those things are everywhere, and the wings are good if it weren't so noisy and sensory overload. Be sure to tell Dave that he's welcome in Missouri and we'll try to accomdate him from Scotland to Cape, Joplin to Mound City. When I was in the hardware biz we had an account in every town in the state. We'll tell him to check on old Sam in Jeff City, who I hope is okay ..?
Aug '10
Re: Discombobulated
David Limbaugh
cheeseloins? Buffalo sandwiches? Maybe at Buffalo Wild Wings. · Dec 10 at 1:24pm
Cheeseloin may be a northern Missouri thing. Fried pork tenderloin sandwich with cheese. Buffalo is a kind of carp. Buffalo wild wings, those things are everywhere, and the wings are good if it weren't so noisy and sensory overload. Be sure to tell Dave that he's welcome in Missouri and we'll try to accomdate him from Scotland to Cape, Joplin to Mound City. When I was in the hardware biz we had an account in every town in the state. We'll tell him to check on old Sam in Jeff City, who I hope is okay ..?
Nov '10
Re: Discombobulated
You need to read more mythology, Dave. Hades was the god of death and wealth (I'm not sure what the connection is, but it made sense to the Greeks) hence, his town would have a nice bank and a nice funeral parlor. :)
The modern conflation of Hades with Satan/Hell is entirely wrong. Hades (the place) encompassed the entire afterlife.