Posted on 07/03/2008 12:13:43 PM PDT by Abathar
INDIANAPOLIS -- One of the fireworks bursting above the city this year will contain a bit of cremated remains -- a fitting tribute, organizers say, to the man who ran the annual event for 40 years.
Meredith Smith died in February at age 74. About a half-teaspoon of his ashes will be in a fireworks shell that will create a white burst in the sky for the finale of the show, set for Thursday night.
"I can't think of a better way," said family friend Kevin Moss.
He also will be memorialized through hundreds of T-shirts referring to the tribute as "the last shot."
Smith, a school maintenance worker, trained as pyrotechnician, or fireworks expert, after starting the neighborhood show, his widow Charlotte, said.
"He liked this sort of thing even though it wasn't his line of work," she said. She said her husband was interested in fireworks for as long as she could remember.
She said the shows started as a community service and the couple sometimes paid for them.
"Meredith felt like the people in this area didn't get the opportunities that other people got, and so he wanted to give them the opportunity," she said.
The release of the ashes shouldn't harm public health, said John Althardt of the Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion County.
"I think that whatever a family can do to remember their loved one ... is great," he said.
The fireworks will be shot over the White River.
"It makes a magnificent show," Charlotte Smith said. "People can see it all over."
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
I wonder if Keith Richards will be attending?
Not real sure about the state this will happen in, but it is against the law in Washington and Idaho to spread ashes (many do it because there is no way of enforcement).
“It’s the funeral that’s shot from guns!”
Reminds me of a joke...
Three gay guys were standing around talking about their deceased friend. The first gay guy speaks up and says, “I think we should spread Bob’s ashes over the ocean, he loved diving.” The second gay guy says, “I really think we should spread Bob’s ashes over the Appalachian trail, he loved hiking.” The third gay guy says, “I think we should put Bob’s ashes into a big vat of chili with lots of hot peppers and eat the chili.” The other two gay guys were aghast at his suggestion and asked why he would say such a thing. The third gay guy exclaimed, “I just want to feel Bob burn my ass one more time!”
LOL!
Had to leave that part out due to excerpt rules.
Hehehehe, going to remember that one...
Old Mr. Smith - he always could light up a crowd.
This seems pretty creepy but then again, so does everything about cremation.
Ghoulish.
For most politicians, it would be appropriate to make them into 4th of July snakes. ;-)
That, of course, was after his shot himself with a gun.
I think it is cool!
There is a company called “Happy Hunting Grounds” that will load yer ashes in shotshells so yer pals can take you out hunting again. They also will load ya in duck decoys and fishin lures.
Me? I want my ashes put in an oatmeal cannister and launched into space so yall can look up and see my ash go by every day.
At least he won’t be the only one to make an ash of himself in public tomorrow.
~shaking my head~
I will be repeating that one!
I changed my will so that my wife or kids will build a huge funeral pyre in the back yard out of railroad ties and old tractor tires.
That way when they light me up every environmentalist in a 25 mile radius can look at the huge black smudge on the horizon and say “All right, who’s the idiot putting all that carbon in the air!”
The actor that played the duty sergeant died ("And let's be careful out there"), and they disposed of him on the show by cremation, with the cops each taking a handful, and spreading the ashes, illegally, on the beat the character had walked as a rookie.
:)
Haunt them Abathar! L0L
We Spread my cuz via four wheeler all over the trails of the prescott national forest
This is a quandary for the enviroweenies.
Cremation creates Co2 and Burial makes a footprint on precious land L0L
I like it.
My will says that my cremated remains are to be released from a Porsche along US-2 in the Upper Peninsula or Michigan at 110 mph or greater.
Correction.
My will says that my cremated remains are to be released from a Porsche along US-2 in the Upper Peninsula OF Michigan at 110 mph or greater.
Sometimes you'd see a light plane flow slowly over the lake and dump ashes.
It was a lot more common than most folks knew.
That’s not too far from my home (Martintucky) Such a pleasant thought if the wind was right I might have snorted someone...
We did that at my Festival last season. A man who’d been a good friend of the faire and a loyal patron went up in the first fireworks show of the season.
I don’t have a problem with it myself, as long as they don’t use the ground effects to actually DO the cremation I think it’s kind of nice.
A friend of our family used to have a fireworks display at his ranch every year and a few years after his death his son had some of dad’s ashes mixed in to the shells.
That joke is the very definition of morbid, perverse hilarity!
R.I.P.”
-I would hardly call having ones body incinerated to the point of being reduced to a trash-like biohazard mess of non biodegradable filthy dirt and then being shot up into the air via a fire work bomb only to disperse amongst a non suspecting crowd of innocent bystanders “resting in peace”. ...... if only.
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