The Wisconsin Death trip is a celebration of life in the midst of death, and a celebration of death in the midst of life. Common elements of the death trip include:
The Funeral
Drinking Game
Photography of the person laying in state.
The endless loop Seasons of Your Life animation montage of the deceased
Memorial Day cemetery picnics
Cookie Cutters made from home casting raised letters from tombstones
Meeting a future spouse at a funeral
Dealing with death stress by having particularly good sex
But, there are regional variations.
Some of this has been documented in a book called Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy, Charles Van Schaik, and Warren Susman.
I thought I could escape the
Wisconsin Death Trip by moving away from Wisconsin until I realized that we all carry the Wisconsin
death trip within us — even people who aren’t from Wisconsin.
