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Originally Posted by markinnaples
Gary, thanks for all of the old stories. This is probably my favorite thread on the internet. Hope you share more if you can, thanks again.
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Thanks markinnaples for the kind words. Thinking about the ole Duster kind of jogged my memory a little about an earlier tow vehicle that didn't happen and of course my Dad was involved and probably a larger degree my Mother had a say in what happened.
I should preface this by telling a little bit more about my Dad. I'm pretty sure I explained about how strong my Dad was (even in his later years) in one of the earlier stories (installing the transmission), but I didn't say how he came by having those muscles. Dad worked for a burial vault company for about 40 years, this company actually made concrete burial vaults for single caskets and Dad not only made them, but he was usually the main installer. The burial vault system consisted of a base, which was about 7 feet long, about 30" wide and about 2-1/2" thick concrete. The upper portion which I called the dome again was made out of concrete and was made by using molds, just a lot bigger than what was used for the base and they made probably 5-6 systems a day. This was back in the 1950's, so other than chain blocks and trollies, there was not any automated equipment, it was all done by hand. When I was a little guy, again back in the 50's, sometimes if Dad had a Saturday installation, I would get to go with him. I always knew if I went, Dad would always stop for ice cream somewhere during the day, so if he asked me, there was no hesitation cause I was going (what a treat). Watching this installation is when I realized how strong Dad was. When he would get to the cemetery, the hole was already done, so before the funeral procession would arrive, it was Dad's job to get everything prepped for the interment. They used one ton trucks with a utility body on them and this is the amazing part (well at least I think it is amazing). Dad would take a 2x12 and lay it down in the hole diagonally with one end at ground level, he would go back to the truck, pull the base (look above for the dimensions of the base - solid concrete) off of the truck and stand it up against the truck. He would put is back to the base, grab it with a hand on each side lean it on his back and walk over to the grave site with this 7 feet long of concrete (I have no idea how much it weighed), but he would always tell me to stay out of his way when he was carrying it. He would get it over to hole, slide it down the board, and then pull the board out. The dome portion of the vault was on a 4 wheeled buggie that he would again put boards against the truck and he would pull the buggie to the boards and then bring it down the board ramps using two other boards, one between two of the wheels and the other one he would use as a wedge to put pressure on the first board and that was the brakes on the buggie coming off the truck. That's how the "Greatest Generation" worked every day, just get out of their way and they would get the job done.
I really didn't have to tell you folks all this information about Dad, but he was the BEST.
The reason I told the story is that Dad use to travel all over northeastern Ohio and he met a lot of people (living ones), and he dealt with a lot of funeral directors. Ok, now to the tow vehicle story (that didn't happen), Dad got the idea that a used hearse would make a really good tow vehicle (basically a Cadillac station wagon). He told me, think about it, it has a big V8, a full frame so we could put a nice hitch on it, tons of space to haul spare parts and tools, not to mention it would have air conditioning. I said OK, so he started looking and found a couple of nice ones (low mileage - LOL). He was getting ready to pull the trigger and I made the mistake of bringing it up at the dinner table one night. In my last post about my Mom I mentioned that she was only 4'10", but I gotta say she ruled the roost and what she said was the way it was. She looked at Dad and flat out said, "NO Hearse is going to be parked in MY driveway." Well, that's how I ended up with a DUSTER for a tow vehicle!!
GM