It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => General Board => Topic started by: AlanS on February 04, 2014, 05:40:26 PM
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/biker-buried-astride-beloved-harley-plexiglas-casket/story?id=22329160 (http://abcnews.go.com/US/biker-buried-astride-beloved-harley-plexiglas-casket/story?id=22329160)
An Ohio motorcycle enthusiast's family has carried out their father's long-laid and elaborate funeral plans, that were 18 years in the making.
Billy Standley, 82, of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, was buried Friday, embalmed atop his 1967 Harley Davidson and encased in a giant plexiglass casket.
A couple of hundred people turned up at the funeral which was held outside so all of Standley's biker friends could attend, two even arriving riding their own motorcyles.
Standley, who died of lung cancer on Sunday, began his own funeral arrangements 18 years ago when he approached David Vernon of Vernon Funeral Homes with his quirky idea.
"At that time I didn't know to take him seriously or not," said Vernon, who realized as conversations progressed over several years that this was something "very important" to Standley.
"He gave it a lot of thought," Vernon said. "He was a unique man -- a man who spoke his mind and did things whether people liked it or not."
The lengths Standley took to arrange his own funeral involved buying three burial plots next to his wife Lorna's grave, which provided a space large enough to accommodate the large custom made concrete vault that would eventually hold the casket.
As for the casket itself, Standley built the see-though box with his two sons out of plexiglass, reinforced with steel and wood rods.
"Me and my brother built the casket five years ago and it's been sitting in his garage waiting for him to die," Pete Standley told ABC News.
After Billy Standley's death on Sunday, five embalmers helped prepare and secure Standley atop his bike, dressing him in his well-worn leathers, white helmet and glasses.
He was secured to the $30,000 bike with the metal armour he had fabricated to wrap around his waist, which was mounted to a bracket that went down between the seats.
Before his final ride, Standley's beloved custom-painted 1967 Electra Glide cruiser had taken him all around the country. The retired truck driver and former rodeo rider had travelled every state except Hawaii in his younger years, with many of those trips made on his motorcycle.
While Standley's family said the burial might be unusual and even shocking to those witnessing it, they wanted to grant the last wish of the man who had told them he didn't just want to ride to heaven, but wanted the world to witness him do it in a see-through casket.
"This was his wish and we granted him his final wish," said Pete Standley. "He rode his motorcycle to the grave and he's still riding it today."
(http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/AP_bill_standley_buried_on_harley_jt_140201_16x9_992.jpg)
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I find that just a liiiiiitle creepy.
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I find that just a liiiiiitle creepy.
Yeah, but it turns out that if you do it this way, you CAN take it with you and now he is the only person with a Harley in heaven.
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I thought everybody gets a harley in heaven?
Actually, I'm sure i don't want to buried in a suit...i never wear the things. Onlyto court, weddings and other peoples funerals.
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I'm surprised some enviro-bureaucrat hasn't complained about burying a motorcycle. Some remnant of fuel could contaminate the ground!
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Ahh. Glock is onto my idea! I always thought having my naked butt catapulted into the Grand Canyon would be a hilarious send off...nothing like horrifying as many people as possible on my exit to put a smile on my face! And the enviro's and EPA goons would be aghast at what my shell would contaminate down below.
Heh! Alas, my family will never go for it so everyone will be spared.
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I always thought that they could drag my fat dead ass back to the corner of the field next to the woods.
If something ate it...
well, you know that Lion King Circle of Life crap
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Exactly. Nature's critters do their thing...as they always have and always will.
Wait till the fecal matter really hits the big fan...
What do libiots think is going to happen to them as they die in droves? That much rotting meat around is going to say one thing to critters...the buffet is open! Could be the spark for the next step in critter evolution...black birds may become the size of geese, ravens may become the size of Cessna's, big cats and wolves could be the size of auto's...
Shyt happens.