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Huntsville man uses hearse as personal car |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Tuesday, 25 May 2004 |
Now for the lighter side !!
Greg McPherson was dying to buy a hearse when he finally found one for sale on the Internet last year.
"She's a 1984 Cadillac `S&S' formal coach," says McPherson, a Huntsville native who works as a contract specialist at Redstone Arsenal. "It's a very pretty car. It's black. It's got a crushed blue velvet interior. Less than 36,000 miles on it. Great ride."
The downside? "Lousy gas mileage, obviously, but it's fun to drive," says McPherson, who named the car "Patty." Patty slugs down a gallon of gas every 9.5 miles. "I love the look and everything else."
He drives it regularly to his job on the arsenal and says it's always easy to find in the parking lot. "It kind of hangs out," he says. "It's kind of hard to miss it if you look down a row of cars. It stands out like a big black thumb."
The car's vanity license plate reads "TOES UP." Reactions vary.
"Most people have said, `Cool.' Some people just look at me. Some people say, `Strange.' Some people just don't say anything and shake their head and walk off. It kind of runs the gamut," McPherson says.
A 1979 graduate of Grissom High School, McPherson lived in Florida for about 20 years before returning to Huntsville a few years ago and earning a bachelor's degree in management technology at Athens State University. He has been working at the arsenal for about a year.
His brother, Geoff McPherson of Gallatin, Tenn., at one time owned three hearses. McPherson checked first with dealers in Nashville and Marietta, Ga., before he found his dream car on the Internet.
He bought the hearse from a man in Michigan who once worked for the company that first used it for its original purpose. The seller left his name tag in the car, and McPherson sometimes wears the badge.
"I say, `Hi, I'm Jason, your funeral director, how can I help you?'" says McPherson, admitting that a sense of humor is required - "a warped one, at that."
McPherson can fit up to three passengers in the front seat, but the back is strictly for cargo. At 7,000 pounds and more than 20 feet long, "you can call it an SUV if you want to," he says, noting that the car is ideal to move items from home improvement stores. "But I try not to because it's in pristine condition."
But he did once use the hearse to return a lawn mower.
On occasion, McPherson operates a side business, contracting the hearse for whatever reason. He delivered a funeral "spray" of flowers to a woman on her 50th birthday as a gift from her husband, who wanted to "create the atmosphere."
"I set up a casket in their living room," McPherson says, adding that the hearse is ideal transportation for people going to their own retirement parties.
As for the presence of spirits in the vehicle, McPherson claims not to be superstitious. But he is covered, just in case, with a quartz crystal he placed "in the heart of the car," he says. He also uses sage to ward off negative energy and to bring good luck.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040525/APN/405250809
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