PROJECT   Roadside Altars         PARTICIPANT   Judith Smith       LOCATION   On the side of the road       REQUEST   I've always been fascinated with cemeteries, an interest inherited from my parents who used to stop at old country cemeteries when we travelled. Roadside Altars have more recently become an interest of mine. Perhaps this is so because, in my reckless youth, I could easily have become a roadside Altar myself. Now they remind me to drive safely and to appreciate that time is still flowing by in my life. I can't remember when I first started noticing these Altars or when I realized what they were. It never occurred to me to ask anyone about them, but somewhere along the way I figured it out on my own. Especially on long trips, these Altars jump out at me. I always think: "Someone died right there." Life lost and lost with no warning--so unexpectedly. Persons, stories, families, and friends--I wonder who they were, how they died, whom they left behind. Cemetery markers are mostly relegated to private lands and to private grieving. On the other hand, these Altars are public displays of private tragedies and deaths; very different acknowledgements of losses than the markers in cemeteries. The Altars are on display to countless numbers of people driving by, living their own lives, noticing or not noticing them. I would like you to document roadside altars that you drive by and also try to find out something about the persons commemorated by the altars--more than just their names and dates of death. Finally, I'd like for you to share with me the feelings you experience when you see these memorials.