OMG Pilgrimage!

[viruswshoes]

The Museum of Funeral Customs!

How could I not love a museum whose slogan is "Death Is Only The Beginning"? Whose gift shop sells casket paperweights, chocolate coffins (with removable lids), and a T-shirt that reads "Everybody's Gotta Go Sometime..."?
Much thanks to Sarah Vowell's book, Assassination Vacation, for the tip

Comments

[bodhipuff]

I heart Sarah Vowell. I would LOVE to visit that place. :)

[viruswshoes]

She's got a wonderful, acerbic sense of humor. I like her writing rhythm and self-deprecation, too.

I tried to get my dad interested in Assassination Vacation. He politely told me he wasn't into the book. At first, I thought it was because of a (very understandable) generation gap between him and Vowell; it's kinda unavoidable, what with her contemporary pop-culture metaphors and all. Oddly, though, he claimed the book - which he said he did scan through at the library - was a bit too macabre and obsessive for his tastes. I found that particularly hilarious coming from him, since he's the former licensed funeral director and embalmer whose all-consuming desire for his own funeral home nearly destroyed his marriage.

Which is, oddly enough, why I would not invite my dad to go - even though it would be one helluva trip with him in tow. ;)

[bodhipuff]

Wow. That makes for some serious storytelling. I thought my life with Dad was macabre because he worked inside people's mouths (he was an orthodontist and our basement was filled with models of people's teeth. He was always working on x-rays of people's bites/teeth and as a kid I remember looking at some really gruesome stuff.) I imagine you may have seen more bizarre?

[viruswshoes]

You could say that, yes.
My first childhood memory is of standing up in the backseat of my father's orange VW Beetle - after he and my mother told me expressly not to. I was wearing my Strawberry Shortcake boots, and my left foot got jammed in between the two front seats as my dad was parking in the Thompson Funeral Home parking lot. I was spanked in the lot shortly thereafter

[bodhipuff]

Wow. Those are some memories. I assume you've written about this stuff?

[viruswshoes]

Nope. Not yet. I'm going to some day. Permission could be a bit of an issue, though.

[bodhipuff]

Ah. I guess I thought maybe you'd at least written for yourself, even if it can't be published.

Still, good material. I always thought one day I would use my experiences in the macabre world of being the daughter of an orthodontist who was a work-aholic in poetry... but I never write.

I <3 this icon.

[viruswshoes]

I would most definitely want to write it for publication because (self-important though this may sound) I think it would be a really good story. But as far as any real writing down just to have those memories documented... nope, not yet. I should probably start doing that; after all, none of the parties involved are getting any younger! ;P

I think you should jot them down. I know I'd like to read them - even if it might squick me out a little.