"Well, he meant well."

On page 347 of Tom McPherson’s "Superior, The Complete History," is his statement at bottom left, that in 1970 “. . . Superior received orders for only 7 Consorts as exclusive funeral coaches . . .” The picture shown above that statement looks mightily like the one owned by the funeral home where I worked, as seen below – medium gray, the color used by that funeral home I’d known all my life.

Mr. McPherson said he didn’t have a color photo of that car, and cautioned me to not publish that shot, as it infringed on his copyright.

I drove, and wrecked, the Pontiac shown below, when a car turned in front of me as I was going for a pickup at the airport. As the other driver and I waited for the highway patrol, the funeral home’s ’65 Consort combination drove by, completing the trip I began. The Chevy station wagon shown next to this Pontiac was the first-call car.

The ’70 was repaired and returned to service. On the day of its return, another employee took it to the gas station across from the funeral home for gasoline. We watched as the station owner filled the tank (what a concept) while the funeral home employee checked the vehicle’s various fluids. He found it to need brake fluid, so he got a can from the station owner and filled the reservoir. He gently closed the hood and moved to check the tires’ air pressure . . . after he sat the brake fluid can on the freshly painted hood. I immediately ran across the street, telling him to get the can off the hood. He didn’t understand me, and it was too late by the time I jerked the can away from the paint – brake fluid had travelled the circle of the can’s bottom, and gray paint was replaced by the sight of primer and bare metal.

The owner held his tongue, but we were all thunderstruck. Back to the body shop it went for another paint job on the hood. It was the first “straight hearse” bought by the owner since the late ’40’s/early ’50’s, because at that time ambulance service was part of the territory, and combination cars were common. In the mid-’60’s most local funeral homes banded together to alert the various county commissioners that “EMS” would not be provided by their establishment. The ’65 was the final combo, but before that the owner bought a ‘62 Corvair van (yes, really), a ’63 Dodge van & a ’66 Ford van – all locally converted into straight ambulances. The Corvair’s service was short-lived, for obvious reasons, the Dodge was totaled in a head-on collision while en-route to the hospital, and the Ford was given to the county, along with a Cadillac from a neighboring funeral home, to get “EMS” started in our area.

I traded the funeral business for the fire service, and the steering wheel and pump panel of a fire engine was exactly where I needed to be . . . and practiced "EMS" anyway. I worked with a man who is now assistant chief, and his calm demeanor usually brings forth the statement, “Well, he meant well.” That’s where the title originated for this 40+ year tale.

The funeral home owner died and the funeral home was sold to a conglomerate, but it wasn’t long before it was gone altogether, replaced by new blood and a new facility, which chugs along to this day.
 

Attachments

  • Bowman edited.jpg
    Bowman edited.jpg
    14.3 KB · Views: 247
Jack, I thought I recognized the rear of the funeral home as being the place of Mr. B... that I did trade embalming in the mid 80's... the embalming room had a window that you could look down onto the back street below, that ran parallel to Main Street. It was the only place I have ever seen that had some structure on the embalming table, that reminded me of the upper portion of a two man stretcher, that the body was placed on for embalming, I had to stand on my tip toes to do many procedures, and it made a difficult(not licensed long, in a strange facility you aren't used to) job even more difficult.
Thanks for the stories sir.
 
. . . and here's what you saw when you looked out that window - Back Street. A radiator repair shop is next to the white bed cover, and the green covered one was the delivery truck for a grocery store before it became the fh's chapel, where the Chevy station wagon sat in the photo. The green in the left foreground is the metal overhang of the fh's garage, where the Pontiac sat in the photo. The one-legged man had been that way since my earliest memories of him - always cheerful and outgoing. The aluminum rack was the only one I ever saw. It allowed raising the legs to facilitate draining. The upper area could also be raised. I liked it. Let's talk soon.
 

Attachments

  • Back Street.jpg
    Back Street.jpg
    22.6 KB · Views: 178
Last edited:
Also notable was this was a storefront funeral home... Jack, did you all form the procession on Main Street?
 
Also notable was this was a storefront funeral home... Jack, did you all form the procession on Main Street?

Used adjustable signs to block parking spaces in front of the fh before folks came to work if AM service. Watched street for vacant spaces in which to place signs later in morning if PM service. That still gave us only a half-dozen or so spaces. We didn't have family cars, and hearse was parked on Back Street. Parking lot across street where house was torn down gave limited additional space 'cause folks needed a place to park while at work. A larger lot to the left of the photo from the embalming room added to the space, but it was always a mess - never mind when we had a service at the funeral home, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Freewill Baptist, or Independent church! There was a time when businesses closed during the service, shades drawn, lights out, doors locked when a business owner died.

The gasoline station I mentioned previously was an Esso my dad owned in the '50's. It was used in the '90's as the rental car office in the movie "My Fellow Americans," with James Garner & Jack Lemon.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top