What got you started?
- Thread starter Pat Post
- Start date
For me it was when i was 19 Back in 1998 . I was walking to work and saw a real beat up 65 Pontiac Crown Royal. The security guard at the place right next to my work was driving it as a every day car. I had never even thought that a private individual could even own one. I went over and talked to him.. He told me about Parks Superior sales in Ct.. Bought my first one 6 months later from them.. Me and the security guard have been friends ever since and i have owned at least one coach ever since ..
That's easy. For me it was 3 main events:
February, 1966: Worcester, MA police purchased 2 new ambulances. I remember the newspaper article and photo. Miller-Meteor low top ambulances, white over blue with blue-lensed full-vue roof lights. I would walk about 4 miles on Saturdays to the police "barn" to look at them. I remember the night one of them came to the house across the street from my parent's house. All of the blue lights dancing across the night sky. Beautiful!
Spring, 1967: JoHan models came out with a 1966 Miller-Meteor ambulance and hearse model. I must have bought 12 of each, painting them in different schemes. Making these models while listening to Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band play in the background. Wonderful!
Summer, 1967: Providence, RI. While at the beach, my brother got bit by something in the ocean and it rendered him unconscious. I remember the beautiful Superior Cadillac ambulance screeching to a stop and the medics loading my brother inside. I couldn't believe it when my parents said "Jim, why don't you ride in the ambulance with your brother". My brother ended up fine and I ended up more in love with professional cars than ever!
November, 2013: The love for professional cars still burns.
February, 1966: Worcester, MA police purchased 2 new ambulances. I remember the newspaper article and photo. Miller-Meteor low top ambulances, white over blue with blue-lensed full-vue roof lights. I would walk about 4 miles on Saturdays to the police "barn" to look at them. I remember the night one of them came to the house across the street from my parent's house. All of the blue lights dancing across the night sky. Beautiful!
Spring, 1967: JoHan models came out with a 1966 Miller-Meteor ambulance and hearse model. I must have bought 12 of each, painting them in different schemes. Making these models while listening to Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band play in the background. Wonderful!
Summer, 1967: Providence, RI. While at the beach, my brother got bit by something in the ocean and it rendered him unconscious. I remember the beautiful Superior Cadillac ambulance screeching to a stop and the medics loading my brother inside. I couldn't believe it when my parents said "Jim, why don't you ride in the ambulance with your brother". My brother ended up fine and I ended up more in love with professional cars than ever!
November, 2013: The love for professional cars still burns.
it was kind of an impulse buy for me. The car i was driving broke down, and i decided i still needed a second car as a backup. A friend of mine mentioned owning a hearse at one point, so i started looking at them on ebay. Then i found out there was a few hearse dealerships in the town where i grew up. so i went to visit one, and the rest is history.
I didn't know what a regular car was when I was growing up. I remember my dad and older brother and me going to the funeral home from the house about 1965 or6 and he got a ambulance call on the radio and I was in the middle and he let me pull the switches for the pancakes and beacon and I was hooked. been lusting after them ever since.
Kurt Arends
PCS Elected Director 2021-2024
1976
With me it was approximately 1976. I was 14 and became aware of the 1956 Meteor 3-way landau that a local American Legion baseball team had bought from our local funeral home. I thought that it was just about the most beautiful car I had ever seen! I later became the owner of that car in around 1982 after they had lost interest and parked it. Unfortunately, the baseball team tore the 3-way table and part of the floor out of the '56 Meteor.
In that same year, I also found out about a local government surplus auction in a near-by community where they had sold a '60 M-M Guardian. Of course, I found out after the fact. My father would not have allowed me to buy it at age 14 anyway. That one got me hooked on ambulances. That saga continues..............
With me it was approximately 1976. I was 14 and became aware of the 1956 Meteor 3-way landau that a local American Legion baseball team had bought from our local funeral home. I thought that it was just about the most beautiful car I had ever seen! I later became the owner of that car in around 1982 after they had lost interest and parked it. Unfortunately, the baseball team tore the 3-way table and part of the floor out of the '56 Meteor.
In that same year, I also found out about a local government surplus auction in a near-by community where they had sold a '60 M-M Guardian. Of course, I found out after the fact. My father would not have allowed me to buy it at age 14 anyway. That one got me hooked on ambulances. That saga continues..............
Sarah Snook
PCS Life Member
I was always into classic cars - especially Cadillacs. Since I was a little kid, I'd go to local car cruises and check out the cars. I decided that when I was old enough to drive, I wanted the most unique Cadillac that I could find. I started looking at ads online and I found some procars for sale. I realized that procars would probably be the most unique Cadillacs that I could find so I started learning more about them and soon became friends with local procar owners like Dave McCamey and Atti. That all happened around 1996. The rest is history.
Mike Winthrop
PCS Member
What got you started
I grew up in DuQuoin, IL where my grandfather, Karl Weinberg, owned the Weinberg Funeral Home (founded in 1888 by his grandfather). The first coach I remember was a 1956 Cadillac (I have no idea the model all I remember is that it was black with what seemed like a very thick vinyl top with the roof extending over the windshield). In 1964 he bought a 1959Crowne Royal end loader from Berger Memorial Chapel, St Louis. I was hooked forever! In 1966, due to health reasons, the funeral home was sold and later became Maxton Funeral Home. The 1959 was traded off a few years later. Sure wish I knew where it ended up. Maxton's closed within the last two years.
I grew up in DuQuoin, IL where my grandfather, Karl Weinberg, owned the Weinberg Funeral Home (founded in 1888 by his grandfather). The first coach I remember was a 1956 Cadillac (I have no idea the model all I remember is that it was black with what seemed like a very thick vinyl top with the roof extending over the windshield). In 1964 he bought a 1959Crowne Royal end loader from Berger Memorial Chapel, St Louis. I was hooked forever! In 1966, due to health reasons, the funeral home was sold and later became Maxton Funeral Home. The 1959 was traded off a few years later. Sure wish I knew where it ended up. Maxton's closed within the last two years.
Bill Marcy
PCS Member
I have told my story before, but if it is okay, I will tell it again.
I have loved cars for as long as I can remember! Ambulances were not a love of mine, when I was a young boy, I will tell you that I was afraid of sirens of any kind and even more scared of ambulances. But, in the summer of 1966, at age ten, my life was about to change. My parents, my sister and I went to a local carnival. At the carnival, there was a bumper car ride. When I got off of the ride, my foot slipped and I broke a toe. At the insistence of the carnival, I was "forced" into an ambulance, against my tears and protests. I had never seen the inside of an ambulance, but my mental image was nothing I was interested in exploring. But, there it was, a gorgeous 1966 Superior Rescuer in sort of an electric blue and white, wow! They opened the door and put me into the stretcher in an immaculate, matching blue and white interior. As we rode to the hospital, the sirens screaming and the red lights flashing off of houses, trees and other cars, I began a love affair with professional cars that is just as strong today. In 1973, when Thomas A McPherson's book entitled Funeral Cars & Ambulances Since 1900 was released, I bought it without hesitation. Although it was a secret love, for the most part, I mean who could you tell? But, once the book came out, it became easier. When I joined The PCS in 1993, it became much easier for me to tell people about my love.
I have loved cars for as long as I can remember! Ambulances were not a love of mine, when I was a young boy, I will tell you that I was afraid of sirens of any kind and even more scared of ambulances. But, in the summer of 1966, at age ten, my life was about to change. My parents, my sister and I went to a local carnival. At the carnival, there was a bumper car ride. When I got off of the ride, my foot slipped and I broke a toe. At the insistence of the carnival, I was "forced" into an ambulance, against my tears and protests. I had never seen the inside of an ambulance, but my mental image was nothing I was interested in exploring. But, there it was, a gorgeous 1966 Superior Rescuer in sort of an electric blue and white, wow! They opened the door and put me into the stretcher in an immaculate, matching blue and white interior. As we rode to the hospital, the sirens screaming and the red lights flashing off of houses, trees and other cars, I began a love affair with professional cars that is just as strong today. In 1973, when Thomas A McPherson's book entitled Funeral Cars & Ambulances Since 1900 was released, I bought it without hesitation. Although it was a secret love, for the most part, I mean who could you tell? But, once the book came out, it became easier. When I joined The PCS in 1993, it became much easier for me to tell people about my love.
Peter Grave - Deceased - 1938 - 2022
PCS Member
Getting started
Think it was 1954 one of my class mates in HS showed up with a 1936 Olds Hearse absolutely like new I could not believe the condition and the beauty of the body tried to find a way to trade him out of it by no he wanted to keep it. Two weeks later he hit a tree with it in the rain and I watched it go to the Junkyard a sad site for me. Then the local Mercury Lincoln dealer traded in a 1941 Packard Rolson bodied town car (open drivers compartment) had a bad clutch parents said NO!!! Dealer sent it to same yard the Olds went to. Then in 58-59 I worked at Packard Frankford we did all the major repairs on the Henny Dealer and fleet owner Geisels Packards he had included Flower Cars Hearses Limos. Got a 1937 Packard Super Eight 7 Pass at a used car lot in Germantown for $300.00. Followed by a 37 V/12 formal sedan Followed by a 41 Buick Limited 7 Pass again the majic $300.00. I could go on for many more Packards and Buicks. First Ambulance was a 64 Cadillac Superior in 65 (Lansdale Vol Med Service Corps.) with an oxygen fire in the back ran and drove fine followed by the 62 Superior Cadillac mentioned in a earlier post. It just went on from there.
Think it was 1954 one of my class mates in HS showed up with a 1936 Olds Hearse absolutely like new I could not believe the condition and the beauty of the body tried to find a way to trade him out of it by no he wanted to keep it. Two weeks later he hit a tree with it in the rain and I watched it go to the Junkyard a sad site for me. Then the local Mercury Lincoln dealer traded in a 1941 Packard Rolson bodied town car (open drivers compartment) had a bad clutch parents said NO!!! Dealer sent it to same yard the Olds went to. Then in 58-59 I worked at Packard Frankford we did all the major repairs on the Henny Dealer and fleet owner Geisels Packards he had included Flower Cars Hearses Limos. Got a 1937 Packard Super Eight 7 Pass at a used car lot in Germantown for $300.00. Followed by a 37 V/12 formal sedan Followed by a 41 Buick Limited 7 Pass again the majic $300.00. I could go on for many more Packards and Buicks. First Ambulance was a 64 Cadillac Superior in 65 (Lansdale Vol Med Service Corps.) with an oxygen fire in the back ran and drove fine followed by the 62 Superior Cadillac mentioned in a earlier post. It just went on from there.
Darren Bedford
PCS Member
For me it was in the mid seventies when I built Johan models, the Heavenly hearse, the Haulin' hearse and the ambulance.
I still have the hearse and ambulance I built back then but the haulin' hearse was destroyed in a model contest that I won second for but someone broke it and stole the 2 engines it had. Devastating as a kid and still bugs me today that someone did that.
After that, I was driving home from work one day and out of the blue, I thought to myself, I want a hearse. I stopped at the funeral home I passed on my way home and asked what they did with their old hearses. No real info was given to me.
I stopped at the local one by my house and the funeral director gave me a copy of the funeral magazine and he told me to look in the back of it for the classified section. Nothing really there in that issue.
I started telling people I wanted a hearse. The coffee truck driver at work said he saw one on his way to his cottage. I ended up going and finding it and bought it right on the spot. Since I had my car with me, we arrange for him to deliver the car on Monday. I was so excited !
The guy was a hearse dealer so he had a yard full of them. Mostly Cadillacs but some Buick's, etc. The oldest was the one I bought.
He delivered it Monday, I handed him the money and the dream was complete.
It was a 1968 MM Cadillac Citation landau endloader !
I LOVED IT BIG TIME !!!
I drove it everywhere for the 4 years I owned it and doubled the miles it had on it. I bought it with 36,000 miles and sold it with over 70,000.
I met Tom McPherson at a local car show, he told me about the PCS and I have been a PROUD member ever since joining the PCS in 1993 !
LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF BEING THE PROUD OWNER OF A BUNCH OF HEARSES !!!
Never to be hearse-less again !
Darren
I still have the hearse and ambulance I built back then but the haulin' hearse was destroyed in a model contest that I won second for but someone broke it and stole the 2 engines it had. Devastating as a kid and still bugs me today that someone did that.
After that, I was driving home from work one day and out of the blue, I thought to myself, I want a hearse. I stopped at the funeral home I passed on my way home and asked what they did with their old hearses. No real info was given to me.
I stopped at the local one by my house and the funeral director gave me a copy of the funeral magazine and he told me to look in the back of it for the classified section. Nothing really there in that issue.
I started telling people I wanted a hearse. The coffee truck driver at work said he saw one on his way to his cottage. I ended up going and finding it and bought it right on the spot. Since I had my car with me, we arrange for him to deliver the car on Monday. I was so excited !
The guy was a hearse dealer so he had a yard full of them. Mostly Cadillacs but some Buick's, etc. The oldest was the one I bought.
He delivered it Monday, I handed him the money and the dream was complete.
It was a 1968 MM Cadillac Citation landau endloader !
I LOVED IT BIG TIME !!!
I drove it everywhere for the 4 years I owned it and doubled the miles it had on it. I bought it with 36,000 miles and sold it with over 70,000.
I met Tom McPherson at a local car show, he told me about the PCS and I have been a PROUD member ever since joining the PCS in 1993 !
LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF BEING THE PROUD OWNER OF A BUNCH OF HEARSES !!!
Never to be hearse-less again !
Darren
Ron Devies
PCS Ohio Chapter President, PCS Vice President
Funny Story
I was like four in 1962 when my neighbor had a stroke and Cassaday & Turkle Funeral Home Ambulance was called. They had a red and white Cadillac like a 61 or 62. It fascinated me. My Father was Fire Chief and we would get Fire Chief magazine at the house and I would look through the pages at the ads for fire trucks and ambulances. I was fascinated with the shapes of the cars and I would play ambulance putting my flexible flyer (cot) in the back of my wagon (ambulance). I watched shows like EMERGENCY! and 240 Robert and when I was 17 I became a EMT being the youngest in the state. I had a license number with only 3 digits. The irony, I now live in the house where I watched that ambulance respond to when I was 4.
I was like four in 1962 when my neighbor had a stroke and Cassaday & Turkle Funeral Home Ambulance was called. They had a red and white Cadillac like a 61 or 62. It fascinated me. My Father was Fire Chief and we would get Fire Chief magazine at the house and I would look through the pages at the ads for fire trucks and ambulances. I was fascinated with the shapes of the cars and I would play ambulance putting my flexible flyer (cot) in the back of my wagon (ambulance). I watched shows like EMERGENCY! and 240 Robert and when I was 17 I became a EMT being the youngest in the state. I had a license number with only 3 digits. The irony, I now live in the house where I watched that ambulance respond to when I was 4.
a modal A buddy of mine wanted me to get a car so I could go with him to car shows. I told him if I could find a old ambulance I would get it. a week later he came dragging in a wheels on deals mag and there it was. a 1972 military CB high top with 7000 miles on it. this was in 1998 the asking price was steep everyone though. but it was close enough to go get. so we did. last I heard it's down in Tx some were
For me, there were several steps:
- I used to watch out my window as the Wheaton Rescue Squad's long, white Oldsmobile ambulances would go past my house on emergency calls ('65 & '66 C-Bs). I could hear them coming, then the ambulance would turn onto the road in front of my house, and go past down a long hill. I could sit in my bedroom window and watch them for almost a mile.
- I could then play with my nearly-identical Matchbox Cadillac ambulance
- When I was in Cub Scouts, my father fell while we were ice skating and cut his face. I got to ride - backwards - with him in the Wheaton Rescue Squad's Cadillac ambulance (a '71 M-M). The next year, the same ambulance came to help my best friend, who had an asthma attack
- I saw an ambulance for sale at a car show when I was about 15 ('50 National Chevy). We didn't buy it, but I thought it would be fantastic to own an antique ambulance. Later, Dad and I bought one ('69 M-M that we eventually sold).
- Like others, I built several Johan ambulance models and kitbashed others. And Dad bought me "American Funeral Cars and Ambulances".
- When I was out of college and living in Tulsa, Dad acquired somewhere a copy of "The Professional Car" magazine. In it was mentioned a PCS member living in Tulsa, Steve Loftin. I found him, and found the PCS.
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In the late '80s I was looking around for something to carry my band's PA;my '81 VW pickup was taking a beating.For no reason at all I was looking in the Rocky Mountain News Cadillac classifieds and Runyan-Stevenson Mortuary had 2 coaches advertised.Again for no reason I called them and made arrangements to go have a look.They'd bought out a FH somewhere around Durango and decided to sell the cars.There was a '69 3-way for $750 and a '73 S&S endloader for $850.The '69 was pretty beat up and I wasn't sure how well I could work out packing speaker cabs on and around the table,not to mention what might happen with all that stuff in a panic stop. So they let me drive the endloader and that was IT. Nice flat woodgrain floor with the extend table and a good strong divider so I knew it would work as a gear hauler.Plus I felt something I can't easily find words to describe....My car carrying who knows how many folks to their rest provided their families' last expression of love for them.Not a big fan of the paranormal,but there was something of that feeling of care and comfort all around that car.So I bought it and carried gear in it (VERY carefully,mind you) for the next 3 years,until the gigs dried up.Miss L. was too expensive to maintain on just my day job and I sold it-for about a $400 profit.Thoroughly enjoyed every single mile and didn't spare the cash for maintenance.
Fast forward about seven years and I'm in another situation where I need a big gear hauler.There's a '73 S&S in the paper,I go see it and it's Miss L,looking pretty forlorn and beat-up,but I HAD to have her back,so I did.The musical situation didn't last,but the Mrs was such a sport about things and over the next couple of years we did new paint,vinyl top,carpeting,front seat upholstery,windshield,radiator,tires,brakes,transmission rebuild,some other running gear stuff and engine peripherals I can't remember,an extra leaf in each rear spring,aftermarket gauges,and an electric fuel pump.My avatar is this car and there are more pics on page 11 of the photo section.It's been awhile since I've carried PA for bands (that's the bandleader's job and I ain't him!) but it'll carry as much as most vans,and in a lot more comfort.She's retired and I just about am too,but we're friends till the end.
Fast forward about seven years and I'm in another situation where I need a big gear hauler.There's a '73 S&S in the paper,I go see it and it's Miss L,looking pretty forlorn and beat-up,but I HAD to have her back,so I did.The musical situation didn't last,but the Mrs was such a sport about things and over the next couple of years we did new paint,vinyl top,carpeting,front seat upholstery,windshield,radiator,tires,brakes,transmission rebuild,some other running gear stuff and engine peripherals I can't remember,an extra leaf in each rear spring,aftermarket gauges,and an electric fuel pump.My avatar is this car and there are more pics on page 11 of the photo section.It's been awhile since I've carried PA for bands (that's the bandleader's job and I ain't him!) but it'll carry as much as most vans,and in a lot more comfort.She's retired and I just about am too,but we're friends till the end.
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Mark Goodwin - Deceased 1950 - 2016
November 29, 1950 - January 16, 2016
From This Day Forward, I Was Hooked
This is the car that started it all for me. My cousin, purchased the car and brought it over to our house for us to see. I am the young boy with my cousin's arm around, pre-wheelchair days. Since riding in the limousine, we have owned five limousines, still owned four of them.
This is the car that started it all for me. My cousin, purchased the car and brought it over to our house for us to see. I am the young boy with my cousin's arm around, pre-wheelchair days. Since riding in the limousine, we have owned five limousines, still owned four of them.
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John Royark JR
PCS Member
Its easier for me to post the article I wrote in the TPC. Pretty much explains the beginning without writing it again. Ive owned at least one procar as a daily driver ever since!
