Fun day at a funeral home.

Brief history: I worked for 20 years at Chapman Funeral Home and in 2000 they sold the funeral home because of wanting to retire and having no one to carry on in the family gave it up. I never went to work for the new guy. Chapman had been in business for five generations. Five years before they sold I started trying to buy their 70mm caddy combo I had driving since first day I worked there and actually drove daily doing convalescent ambulance work up until 1992 and some for funerals after that. It took me five more years after new guy bought the business to get the car as I called them every few months asking for it and one day told owner I had a limo he needed as he had expressed a desire to have one for the funeral home and he said to bring it by and within one hour of that phone call I was driving home in old blue. As most of you know I still have and will continue to have old blue. A while later he sold the limo because he didn't use much and actually he called me when he needed a limo because I had a limo business so he had access to those. Recently I turned the limo business over to my drivers after a 15 yr. run and now the funeral home was again without good way to get a limo when he needed one. My little wheels starting turning again. There was stuff in the attic some dating back to early 1900's like church trucks, equipment used for home viewing as at one time all were done, embalming equipment, registration stands for visitations, old ambulance equipment from their days of doing that, old two way radios from when they would call the cars from the office when out on runs, even the old Chapman sign that was out in the yard in front of the building at one time. Something else was about 20 baby or child caskets dating about 1950 still in shipping crates with labels where they came in by train. ALso about twenty suits and dresses that were never sold and new owner had just tossed them in the PILE of stuff. You can see where this is going. I offered to trade another six door limo to him for "What is in the Attic". I had been working on this for a few weeks and this morning it came together and I spent most of the day going up and down the stairs to retrieve my stash. I can hardly walk this evening but I feel it was worth it. I got everything I planned to except the caskets which I will go back for and deliver his car this week. IT was about 100 degrees up there and with climbing the steps about 50 times I thought I would have a heat stroke. Soooo, another interesting day was had and I look forward to opening up all the cases to see just what I did get as it would have taken too long to do while loading but just the stuff I did see was really neat. Now some of you may find this story weird but I know some who would have loved to have been there and that would have been great cause I could have used the help!:toocool:
 
Brief history: I worked for 20 years at Chapman Funeral Home and in 2000 they sold the funeral home because of wanting to retire and having no one to carry on in the family gave it up. I never went to work for the new guy. Chapman had been in business for five generations. Five years before they sold I started trying to buy their 70mm caddy combo I had driving since first day I worked there and actually drove daily doing convalescent ambulance work up until 1992 and some for funerals after that. It took me five more years after new guy bought the business to get the car as I called them every few months asking for it and one day told owner I had a limo he needed as he had expressed a desire to have one for the funeral home and he said to bring it by and within one hour of that phone call I was driving home in old blue. As most of you know I still have and will continue to have old blue. A while later he sold the limo because he didn't use much and actually he called me when he needed a limo because I had a limo business so he had access to those. Recently I turned the limo business over to my drivers after a 15 yr. run and now the funeral home was again without good way to get a limo when he needed one. My little wheels starting turning again. There was stuff in the attic some dating back to early 1900's like church trucks, equipment used for home viewing as at one time all were done, embalming equipment, registration stands for visitations, old ambulance equipment from their days of doing that, old two way radios from when they would call the cars from the office when out on runs, even the old Chapman sign that was out in the yard in front of the building at one time. Something else was about 20 baby or child caskets dating about 1950 still in shipping crates with labels where they came in by train. ALso about twenty suits and dresses that were never sold and new owner had just tossed them in the PILE of stuff. You can see where this is going. I offered to trade another six door limo to him for "What is in the Attic". I had been working on this for a few weeks and this morning it came together and I spent most of the day going up and down the stairs to retrieve my stash. I can hardly walk this evening but I feel it was worth it. I got everything I planned to except the caskets which I will go back for and deliver his car this week. IT was about 100 degrees up there and with climbing the steps about 50 times I thought I would have a heat stroke. Soooo, another interesting day was had and I look forward to opening up all the cases to see just what I did get as it would have taken too long to do while loading but just the stuff I did see was really neat. Now some of you may find this story weird but I know some who would have loved to have been there and that would have been great cause I could have used the help!:toocool:

all you had to do was call i had 1 run today. :drama:
give me a heads up on what day your going back if its this slow all week maybe i can get out that way and get old yeller and help ya out
 
Hey Danny, I cannot wait to see what you're selling. The sign has me excited for my garage. I will be picking up a complete Holiday Inn script sign next month for my garage. A friend of mine runs the Holiday Inn in Daytona and they are getting new signs next month. Terri about had a stroke when I told her that...:wowguy:
 
sorry I most likely would not have been much help to you. I would have been digging threw all the boxes and making more of a mess then helping load. kind of like a kid turned loose in a candy store. love going threw new old stuff. makes you wounder just why and how some of it came into the place and why it was never used. bought not need tucked away and forgotten about. mom and pop businesses do some strange stuff. big chain would have tossed it all out.
 
Your obvious excitement about your purchase and the thrill of finding out exactly what you have reminds me of the show American Pickers on the History Channel. Those two guys go through attics and old barns to find things just like what you have acquired and are just as excited.

We are all anxiously awaiting to see pictures and find out what treasures you may have.
 
I love the story. I've gotten the word out around here, and every now or then, some firehouse will call and say they are cleaning out the attic or storage shed, would I like to come by and get the ambulance stuff.

One time, the chief of a fire department called and told me he had an old ambulance cot in the firehouse storage shed (an old truck trailer), would I like it? I said I'd come by next week. He said I'd better come before Friday, so I went that Wednesday. Got the cot, some cot bars, and a nice '40's E&J resuscitator. Some other guys got fire hose nozzles and fire truck parts.

That Friday, he was ousted as fire chief. The truck trailer was hauled off for scrap a couple weeks later. A few months later, he died.

So ya never know. Get it while you can!
 
The local fire chief denied that there was anything in the attic or the cellar... Three 40 yard roll off containers, they were both empty. He wouldn't allow anyone to take anything, and made sure that everything was dropped into the scrap yard. The scrap yard wouldn't allow anything to be removed for fear of offending the fire chief. The following year, he retired, and everyone was much relieved to see him gone, from what I was told. Some are willing to share, and others are not. Most often not, unless they know you.
 
Went back and got the caskets today and just finished unloading them and boy was that a job. They were too heavy to move by myself and young man at funeral home helped with getting them out of attic and down stairs to van. Skooted them out and used hand trucks to move into garage. Getting crowded in there with cars that were already in there. They were from Atlanta Casket, Rome Casket, and Cherokee Casket all from Ga. and don't believe any still in business. Will call former owner of funeral home and see exact dates but think late 40's. Still in shipping crates and some never opened but ones I have looked at in good shape. ;
 
They were from Atlanta Casket, Rome Casket, and Cherokee Casket all from Ga. and don't believe any still in business. Will call former owner of funeral home and see exact dates but think late 40's. Still in shipping crates and some never opened but ones I have looked at in good shape. ;

Cherokee is still in business and is the largest infant/child casket manufacturer in the U. S. Jim
 
little ball up on getting in the front springs. they are collapsed and have had spacers put in . so we'll get them change here. just waiting for them to come in and working on my jeep. since it's just sitting in the stall I can't resist a spin down town now and then. but really except for the shake down cruse it has not gone far. I only put 250 miles on is since I have had it.
 
Nice find, Danny!

You never know when or where good stuff will turn up. A couple years ago, I found a 1968 S&S Cadillac Park Row combination that was in service with the same funeral home in South Dakota from new until 1989. I never saw this car when it was traded in; it was sold to some kid who painted it flat black and cut the rear interior apart. :puking:

By the time I caught up with the car two years ago, it was pretty much trash, but certainly worthy of photos, partly due to the original green interior and some spots of the original mint green color peeking through the horrible flat black.

From original paperwork that was still with the car (amazingly), I was able to confirm that this came from the funeral home I suspected it did. I contacted the funeral home (still owned by the same family) to inquire if they had photos of the car in the original green color. Unfortunately, they did not. "Would you have any use for a light and siren? I think we still have those" the funeral director said.

You can imagine how the conversation went after that, so I'll spare you the details. Four days later, I was in receipt of a Federal 17-D beacon, model 28 siren, and...oh yeah...the original S&S plexiglass ambulance window grilles (in excellent condition) too!

:071:
 

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Sounds like a lot of fun, Danny! Tony, that '68 S&S looks neat, though it's amazing how nice (parts) of the interior look compared w/ the rusty exterior! Do you have any photos of the plexiglas ambulance signs? I don't think I've ever seen S&S's version of those.
 
A few years ago I got ambitious and sent letters out to most of the funeral homes in NE Ohio asking them if they had old ambulance stock and if so would they sell. I got one reply and went to Broadview Heights where the FD loaded me up with a cot 3 M-28s a E&J, landau bars and a bunch of other stuff. When I asked him how much I owed him he said he was just happy somebody was preserving all of this....no charge. Another one called me and wanted me to come clean out his attic but never got back with me after several calls of calling him I let it go so there is more out there. I just made a major haul out of our fire station a couple weeks ago and am thinking of making some rounds.
 
Now some of you may find this story weird but I know some who would have loved to have been there and that would have been great cause I could have used the help!:toocool:

I'm one of those people who would have loved to have been there, again. When I first met Danny in 1998, I spent a few visits at the funeral home, and on one trip, I got to go up to the attic. Just as he said, the place was full of old treasures that hadn't seen the light of day in more years than I've been alive. Now if it hasn't already been taken by someone else, I remember there being a brand new Federal beacon up there too. Hope you can find that one up there, Danny!
 
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