On 2016-04-23 12:46 PM, graham wrote:

> Calgary council said that policy was to leave them for a year and then
> clear them during the next cleaning season. However, people got upset
> over that! Some were building memorial cairns FFS!
> I don't understand the flowers and teddy bears either. It seems to be
> some primitive, pagan form of offering to the gods.


Our neighbours were upset about a memorial that ended up on their front
lawn and the crowds of students that used to hang out on their lawn
after a local student was killed in a motorcycle accident in front of
their house. I remember the incident well because the kid had been an
accident looking for a place to happen. It was early in motorcycle
season. I used to get home from work at 3:45 pm and every day for a
preceding week and a half this guy would come flying down the road. It
is a 60 kph zone and he would be doing well over 100 kph on his crotch
rocket. One afternoon at the usual time an oncoming vehicle had crossed
the centre line because of a flock of geese. The kid crested the hill at
high speed and hit her head on. He was dead on impact.

He was the author of his misfortune. It had been only a matter of time
before he crashed and the only good thing about it is that no one else
was killed or injured. The neighbours kept removing attempts at
shrines and started shooing kids away from their property.