When did this start?
Recently I have been interested in genealogy. This lead to cemeteries and headstones as I decided to trace one line back to the oldest written record and the same line back to the oldest physical record i.e. a grave marker. Additionally this interest has taken me to 3 local cemeteries and a planned a trip to the Phipps Street Burying Ground in Charlestown, MA to photograph a headstone of the oldest ancestor I could find.
In local cemeteries the two of the many headstones I looked at were 'The Big Train,' Walter Johnson, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both of the headstones were strewn with trash which sort of turned a hallowed place into one of those roadside "monuments."
How is a pile of rotting teddy bears and plastic flowers supposed to honor the dead? How about pennies on the headstone? Are they the all American sign of respect (some 47 years ago I saw a exhibit of alligators in San Francisco where the alligators were covered with pennies)?
I guess it is futile to question the manifestation of grief, and probably wrong...but.........damn!