Roadside Folk Expression

I have long held a fascination with roadside displays of folk expression: flags and signs hanging from overpasses, graffiti on bridges and rock croppings, memorials to those who died in that very spot, cranky hand-lettered signs.

On my recent trips to Boston I have passed a sheet hanging from an overpass on the Mass Turnpike saying: "Lawyers want Custody Battles 1-800-SAD-DADS." Folk expression usually derives from instances where regular means of communication are either exhausted or felt inadequate. I can imagine the frustrated father who was moved to spray paint this message on a perfectly good sheet and hang it over the highway (especially since I am driving to Boston for a contentions custody battle!)

Other instances of local signage that I enjoy occur just outside my home town. In Maynard, MA, at the town line, someone put up a plywood sign with the message "Since Maynard Public Schools Refuse to Have an Honor Roll, here is a list of the students who should be on the honor roll.. . " (or something to that effect). In Littleton, MA, on a particularly ill-repaired road is a homemade sign - again on plywood - saying "Fix ******** Street It is an embarrassment to Littleton. . ." What I most love about these signs is that there is simply too much verbiage on them to read completely during one drive-by. And again, we see frustration with official means of communication and action displayed in folk ways.

I stumbled upon an article on the website Something Awful about the sprouting of roadside memorials at places where there have been automobile fatalities.  In this incredibly misanthropic posting, the author wonders why we put memorials up for people who die in auto accidents, but we don't make memorials in places like hospitals where people die of cancer.   I think any folklorist could easily answer this question: the automobile death is an unexpected and unusual death.  And unusual and unexpected things are generally celebrated or marked in the folk imagination.    You are expected to die in the hospital: hence no spontaneous memorials springing up in hospital rooms (and, besides, logistically this would be impossible).  But, people are not expected to die on the road (especially young people), hence spontaneous memorials springing up at accident locations.