Double Parking Meter Tombstone

Harlan, Indiana

Everyone who knew Archillous Adair "Archie" Arnold recalls that he had a good sense of humor. Not even a diagnosis of terminal liver disease could dampen it. So when he accidentally backed over two parking meters in his hometown of Hicksville, Ohio, he knew what to do. He asked the sheriff if he could keep the meters, outfitted them with new supporting pipes (he was a steamfitter), and stipulated in his will that the meters should flank his tombstone with their dials set to "Expired."

Archie died on April 21, 1982 -- not gradually from his liver, but instantly from injuries suffered when his car was hit by a truck. He was buried in his parking meter grave, an event deemed so notable that it made the front page of the local Chronicle-Telegram. His attorney, asked to explain Archie's last wish, said, "You had to know Archie."

There are a few other parking meter tombstones in the U.S., but Archie's appears to have been the first, and it's the only one with two meters. The coin slots on Archie's meters have been welded shut to keep pranksters from inserting money and possibly resurrecting him as a laugh-starved zombie.