Consort

[Ted Duncan]

This was provided by Jack Ramsey, a former member here. It's where he grew up & served as embalmer - Marshall, NC, 20 miles northwest of Asheville - from '74-'79.

According to the Superior book, this Consort, the first bought after discontinuing ambulance service in '66, and the last hearse bought by Mr. Bowman, was one of only seven straight hearses made during 1970. It may be the one pictured on page 347. The station wagon in the background was used for removals. Jack hit a car with the '70 when a man drove in front of him. The day the Consort was returned to duty, another employee spilled power steering fluid on the hood. Back to the paint shop! Disposition unknown.

The '70, a '65 Consort combo - one of 150 built - (both were wonderful to drive), and a '73 Ford flower van, were damaged during a flood of the French Broad River in the garage seen. All returned to duty, but continued to spit dried mud from the a/c vents.

The garage could house three vehicles - one behind another, plus one to the side. All vehicles were silver/gray. The other ambulances, a homemade '66 Ford van & a '61 C/B Olds combo (first one with a beacon & Model 28 siren - earlier ones had a WLRG or bumper-mounted lights), were given to the county. The other funeral home in the county gave a Cadillac combo to the county.

Other ambulances that Jack remembers included a '57 Chevy/National, '51 & '55 Pontiac/Superior combos, '63 homemade Corvair, '68 Plymouth/National, '51 Dodge Panel Wagon (used primarily for flowers) & '65 homemade Dodge van. Most vehicles were either given to funeral home employees or sold to the public. Mr. Bowman drove the Corvair for several years.

There wasn't enough overhead room to allow the '65 Dodge to enter the garage with a beacon, so they installed after-market bullet lights on each corner, and a Q1B behind the grille (their only Q). Shortly after being put into service, the Dodge was totalled en route to a hospital. The other driver said she didn't see it. Funeral home employees suffered minor injuries.

The '66 Ford van was then bought and the concrete at the garage door entrance was dug away to allow clearance for a beacon. The Q was transferred to the Ford. Jack "exchanged" the Q for a 28 when the Ford was given to the county. The Q then somehow began to occupy a place behind the grill of a local fire truck.

The funeral home opened in the '30's, did about 165 calls annually, was sold to SCI after Mr. Bowman's death, then closed in the '90's. It now stands vacant.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

so it goes all across the country. it was people like this that made America what it is. local man doing all he could to help out his neighbors,money be damned. big business is only successful in these small communities if the can keep the man in the same spot. making the buffer between them and the community.

 

[Kent Dorsey]

thanks for the photo and information Ted...
Also noteworthy was that this was a storefront funeral home...when I was at Groce in the mid 80's... I did some trade embalming for them. Ed Fender was the manager then. The embalming room was on the upper floor and had a nice window that you could look down on the backstreet. They had some kind of weird apparatus on the embalming table (that I have never seen before and never hope to encounter again...) that held the body off of the embalming table. It looked like someone had taken the upper portion of a two man stretcher and placed it on the embalming table. I am not real short, but not real tall either, and spent most of my time on the tips of my toes there. Being licensed only for a year or two then, it seems you always ran into your worst cases when you were trade embalming and in unfamiliar surroundings, with unfamiliar equipment and chemicals...
Cliffside's Horton Landreth (formerly, McKinney-Landreth, now retired) had told me about the Corvair ambulance Dedrick had...

 

[Ron Devies]

Aaron Greene needs to see that.

 

[Ted Duncan]

Consort, edited

Well, it's time to man-up. Ted lets me use his posting privileges. I'm Jack Ramsey. Yes, I could re-apply for membership here but I choose to not do so. Please don't ban Ted for something that's of my own doing. Say the word and I'll be glad to stop. I'm drawn to Kent's comments in particular.

The embalming room was on the upper floor and had a nice window that you could look down on the backstreet.

That backstreet is called . . . ready? . . . Back Street.

They had some kind of weird apparatus on the embalming table (that I have never seen before and never hope to encounter again...) that held the body off of the embalming table. It looked like someone had taken the upper portion of a two man stretcher and placed it on the embalming table. I am not real short, but not real tall either, and spent most of my time on the tips of my toes there.

Man, do I remember that rack! The embalmer when I was growing up, Allen Duckett, said it was there when he got there, many moons before. Unlike Kent, I have legs. The rack is tubular aluminum, hinged in the middle, approximately the length & width of the table & has no manufacturer's emblem. Raising the lower portion facilitated drainage and washing, gave a drier underside, and eased lifting. I wish I'd had one at every funeral home.

Cliffside's Horton Landreth (formerly, McKinney-Landreth, now retired) had told me about the Corvair ambulance Dedrick had.

It was a '63, and like all the other homemade ambulances, the interior was fabricated by a local carpenter. Although the Olds had a beacon (Bowman's first), Mr. Bowman had a flasher installed on the Corvair's beacon. No one could get it across to him that the beacon's movement negated the need for a flasher. After the Corvair's relatively short ambulance service (need I say more?), Mr. Bowman wanted me, a high school student, to drive him some four hours east to a meeting. Even as a teen, my torso was just about permanently re-shaped due to that straight-back seat! It just occurred to me that the Corvair was two-tone - gray/silver & white.

It also occurred to me that the garage accomodated four vehicles, not three - the second behind the first, the third to the left of the second, and the fourth slightly forward and to the left of the third. Obviously, only one vehicle could enter/exit at a time - quite a show for those in the area when more than one came screaming out for a multiple ambo run.

My dad was a volunteer firefighter, and it spilled over to me. I always knew I wanted to be a vollie, but I didn't think I wanted to do the paid thing. Mr. Bowman and one of my aunts paid for embalming school for me - American Academy McAlister Institute in New York City. Some nine years after embalming school, various calls dealing with those with whom I grew up, and their families, just overwhelmed me, and in 1979 I traded my trocar for a firefighting career. Strange to say that running into burning buildings saved my sanity. Life has strange lessons.

 

[Steve Lichtman]

Jack, we won't ban you. Great story. Do you have photos of the Corvair - I know Paul will want to see that - or any of the other ambulances?

You should re-join, we won't bite. And you won't have to find someone else to let you log on, you can visit any time you like!

.. I am not real short, but not real tall either...

So, Kent, which are you? ..............Shorty!

 

[Ted Duncan]

Jack, we won't ban you. Great story. Do you have photos of the Corvair - I know Paul will want to see that - or any of the other ambulances? You should re-join, we won't bite. And you won't have to find someone else to let you log on, you can visit any time you like!
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No Corvair pix. You've no idea how many times I wish I had photos of the others - and it's my own fault that I don't!:bonk:

Thanks for the in-vite. It's not your teeth that concern me.