As much as Sweetums and I love roadside oddities, sometimes we come across a sight that makes even our mouths drop. I can’t remember one that caused us the consternation as the one we saw Friday in Baldwin County, Alabama.
It was a roadside display of knick-knacks. We’ve seen a few of those, often groupings of little concrete garden statues, sometimes handmade objects or folk art. What we found Friday was different. It was actually a little frightening.
It was nearing dusk and we were traveling Alabama Highway 59, a two-lane country road. We left Mobile that afternoon heading home but, as usual, we didn’t take a direct route to Huntsville.
We had just remarked on a sign for the Chrysler community, saying we’d never heard of it, and were headed toward a place called Little River (there’s a more well-known Little River in north Alabama). As we drove past a row of what appeared to be weathered stuffed animals set in various scenes along the road, Sweetums pointed and I looked out the window, mouth open. Then we looked at each other with the unspoken message that we were going to turn around and go figure out what the heck we’d just seen. We were able to park in a dirt road directly across from the display so we could walk over and take photos.
It was so creepy and had no purpose we could discern. I was a little nervous already when I heard voices in the woods beyond the dirt road so I got in the car and locked the door while Sweetums made a video.
Take a look and decide for yourselves. A few things you can’t tell from the photos: a T-shirt with a message against domestic violence, a book cover made from wood with a title painted on the spine, “The Farmer: EIEIO,” the spray-painted message “Lives Matter” alongside a painted teddy bear, followed by another painted message “Give a Damn.”
The strangest part of the display was what appeared to be the figure of a woman made from a stuffed dress and set on a log, its “arms” holding an empty soda bottle. It had no head. Nearby lay a little girl’s dress.
The groupings and messages made little sense to us. What do you think?
PHOTOS CONTINUE AFTER VIDEO
KellyKazek.com 
Sadly, I’d say that this is a memorial to a woman (and perhaps her child or children) who were killed (or severely harmed) by someone she once loved. Maybe someone who stood by and didn’t do anything to stop it, i.e., “Give a damn.” The stuffed animals could be a tableau of what happened (a house fire, maybe, that killed a family?), I couldn’t tell, but could the empty soad bottle (what size) be the child?
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It will be interesting to see if anyone can tell us anything about it. It was so creepy and sad at the same time because the little animals had been rained on and were falling apart. It’s by far the strangest roadside memorial we’ve seen, if that’s what it is, and that’s saying something.
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I really think y’all were in the
” twilight zone!” Eireeeee!!
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After my mother was older and developing dementia, she would do things like this, in her back yard, however. She hardly ever went anywhere anymore so she entertained herself by using things she hoarded over the years to create little venues. She even made a homeless man to sit in her shed. Seeing these made me miss her. Looking at your photos I wondered if an inconsiderate person had dumped their trash on someone’s property and the landowner just did something creative. Another possibility is that someone thought, “Kelly Kazek might drive by here some day. I think I will create something she can put in one of her articles”.
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Hi, GK, somehow this comment slipped past me. I’m sorry to hear about your mother’s dementia. It is always interesting to wonder what is in the minds of people who create such tableaux. Thanks for writing.
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