Dead Bodies

[Purple Haze]

This is kind of a morbid subject, but it's been on my mind for a while. I've attended a couple of funerals lately where the bodies were all spruced up and put on display like fine taxidermy. This seems to be the "proper" thing to do. After being injected with all these preservatives and sealed up in a steel box, they're put into the ground like modern day mummies ala King Tut.

This all seems to be a waste of money and land to me, I would rather be tied up in a hefty cinch-sack and buried under a tree or something, so my body actually has some purpose after I'm not using it anymore. Does anybody know if this would be legal someway?

This is neither a joke or a death wish, It's just been on my mind as of late. The whole funeral business just seems mildly ridiculous.

(watches thread drop like a rock)

 

[Ambrosious]

My aren't you in a happy mood? Just donate what can be used and burn the rest, for me. I won't care and don't want any particular spot for people to come mourn over.

 

[KillerMuffin]

In the US you cannot legally be buried anywhere but a cemetery without proper permits, etc.

Despite being mummfied and put into a steel box, disintegration and decompostion still occur. The concern is that you may eventually taint the underground water supply. Get creamated and have them dump you someplace, less space consuming.

 

[Ambrosious]

The concern is that you may eventually taint the underground water supply.

Here in Atlanta, the concern is that the water supply will contaminate the dead bodies.

 

[KillerMuffin]

I thought Atlanta had a new test program going where they would take the dead bodies, put them in computer operated cars, and have them do the late night shift of the Atlanta 5,000 on the bypasses?

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

Speaking of the dead......

John Madden, and Pat Summerall yesterday? They got so much make-up on they look like taling corpses.

 

[Ambrosious]

No we have that program already, except they are on the roads between 6:30AM-7:00PM. We affectionately call it rush hour.

 

[Purple Haze]

Despite being mummfied and put into a steel box, disintegration and decompostion still occur.

Are you sure this is true?

 

[Silverlily]

Yes, Virginia, it is true.

I worked for a cemetary in NC. State law there requires not only a casket, but a vault. Even the most expensive ones do not stop decomposition. All a vault really does is keep the 2000lbs or so of dirt from crushing the casket.

 

[SeXy ReDHeD]

Despite being mummfied and put into a steel box, disintegration and decompostion still occur.

Are you sure this is true?

Yes, Purple Haze, this is true; it just takes much, much longer.

 

[Patryn]

I've always thought the whole concept of a wake macabre in a way. I mean what you're basically doing is saying "Uncle George died, hey, I know....let's have a sandwich while standing over the casket and saying how natural he looks!!! Wouldn't that be fun?" Ugh. That's just my personal feeling on it, but I think I'd prefer it if most wakes were closed casket.

As for burial, I've always had this thought in my head that someday far, far down the road, when your grandkid's great grandkids are dead, we're gonna run out of space to bury people. What then?

 

[Closet Desire]

Here's something to think about...

During my research about the Brontes and life in north Yorkshire I discovered by the time the churchyard in Haworth was closed for health reasons in about 1855, 42,000 bodies had been buried in a cemetary measuring roughly 20 yards by 50 yards. How did they do that you might ask? I'm not sure how it worked at Haworth, but in most places the bodies were dug up every 17 years. The coffins were sold as firewood to the poor and the remains were crushed and used as fertiliser (no kidding). What ya' gonna do? Average age at death was 25, 100% of the population was infected with TB, and half the population never made it to 6 years old.

Custom here since there's no room is to have a cheap, pressed board coffin and then be cremated. There aren't many places to be buried but if you are there are no requirements on vaults and such.

I guess it's sort of like Rodney Dangerfield said in "Caddy Shack"..."golf courses and cemetaries--biggest waste of real estate I always say."

 

[Myrrdin]

In the UK there are over a hundred sites where it is possible to hold woodland burials. A tree is planted to mark the grave instead of a headstone.
For the DIY enthusiast there are companies who can supply coffins as flat packs for self assembly.
For the Greens, the coffin made out of recycled cardboard .
Or you can even get the usual type, on overnight mail order.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

To remember the person who's passed do you keep photos of them alive, or dead? Alive, of course. Funerals are to say good-bye, psychologically, to someone who's dead, by recalling them while living. It's easier to do that with a totem, hence a body made to look alive. It's not really that hard to understand, I think.

 

[TN_Vixen]

creamate me..

then throw a party. Everyone get drunk and toast me having a helluva good time in the afterlife.

I never approved of open casket funerals and Patryn? The thought of eating around a dead corpse also makes me queasy.

 

[CelestialBody]

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

The "running out of room thing" is interesting. In Bermuda they ran out of room a couple of centuries ago, so everyone is buried on top of each other in deep, underground wells. Kind of like apartment buildings in reverse.

 

[Guest]

Funerals are for the living.

 

[CelestialBody]

Stupid question, maybe.

 

[Guest]

purple haze

hey purple you won't decay remember your plastic, like in lashers purple plastic dink haaaaa, haaaaaaaa

 

[teresafannin]

I have to agree that funerals are for the living & I think it does provide some closure. If it had been only me, I would have had no viewing & a small service when Justin died, but I had to consider family & friends. When my first husband died in Wyoming, his dad had him cremated there. His mom & I never got to say goodbye & that has haunted me for years. I couldn't do that to Justin's friends. The funeral home was very good to us, they did everything exactly like I wanted. Over 1400 people came to the funeral, I was amazed at how many people we know & how many lives were touched by Justin's. As difficult as it was, it was important that Justin's friends be able to say good bye-it didn't make it any easier, but it gave them a chance to share a last few minutes.I personally want a party when I am gone, there a ton of goofy stories about me & I want my family & friends to share them all. Many people disapproe of cremation, but it is what I want for myself, I don't want to take up space when I am gone.

 

[Jay Leno]

The concern is that you may eventually taint the underground water supply.

Don't you like water with that full-bodied flavor??LOL