January 21, 2005
Viewing the Dead
Have you ever been tired of chatting people up at a funeral parlor viewing, so you walk down the hall, and see who else is there? I mean walk into another viewing room, with no one inside but the poor open-casketed deceased. I do that from time to time. Walk up and have a peek. See what they look like. Hope they are elderly, not taken before their time.
I did that a couple of years ago, and looked at the name, then looked at the departed, and realized I knew her. She lived down the street when I was a child. She was old now (or had been), wizened. I had not seen her for 35 years.
I must confess that was a damned curious sensation.
I haven't ever done that but I did find it somewhat disconcerting when I was watching the movie Clerks and realized that the funeral home they visit is the same one at which we had my dad's viewing. Jarring, to say the least.
Watching other Kevin Smith films and realizing I recognized a church and a music store (Dogma and Chasing Amy, respectively) was also kinda weird but not remotely on the same scale.
Posted by: zonker at January 21, 2005 11:19 PMActually...I was an altar boy at the church featured in Dogma. As I said, kinda weird.
(And, no, I did not encounter the type of scumbag Catholic priests who molest children. Or if I did, they left me alone. Oh...but that does remind me of this one priest...not a molester but (probably) a druggie....hmmm...I'll save that for my own blog.)
Posted by: zonker at January 21, 2005 11:23 PMYeah, I used to do that, when I was a kid, and had to attend barbaric Southern funerals of people I didn't care all that much about, in my huge weird extended GA-MS family. Seeing my Mom in the box a few years back cured me of it, I think.
Posted by: Justthisguy at January 23, 2005 2:36 AMP.S. Funny, that's one of the ways in which I'm still a virgin. I've never seen a dead human who wasn't already in a box. I've also never heard a full-auto weapon fired. Never borne a child, either. The weird, fun, dangerous icky deadly stuff. And it's too late now, and probly a good thing, too, except life does go on, and young rowdies fly airliners into tall buildings, and the earth moves, and people die.
What does it all mean, Mr. Natural?
Posted by: Justthisguy at January 23, 2005 2:45 AM