Comments on: Arkansas Memories Tour of 2009: Cotter – Goin’ Fishin’

By: Janice Garrison

Janice Garrison — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:49:02 +0000

I don’t know about the embalmer and furniture store, Greg and his friends answer sound right on.

I do know that it’s hard to be fresh fish. Mmmm!

Love your posts about the trip!!

By: Greg England

Greg England — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:46:20 +0000

Patrick: I think you should add that you and Tom would be ready to get them shortly after they are CLEANED!

By: Patrick Mead

Patrick Mead — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:28:15 +0000

Having no answer, I’ll not give one. The fish, though — they sound wonderful. I don’t like fishing, but I like kippers for breakfast and a good bit of trout from time to time. Dee, you can catch them. Tom and I can sit on the bank, read our books, and get ready to get them shortly after they land.

By: cwinwc

cwinwc — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:13:09 +0000

I would think if one was “dead tired” one could avail themselves of a comfy couch in the Furniture store or if they were really dead tired, well, you know.

By: Meowmix

Meowmix — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:14:53 +0000

I’m sure Greg has it nailed. But let me tell you about this guy in my home town. It was said he used embalming fluid to preserve meat for sale. (He was a meat cutter, I think, in a grocery store.) Not sure, but I think he got in some trouble!

By: Greg England

Greg England — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 07:20:38 +0000

The above is NOT my final answer.

After throwing this question out to a co-worker / funeral director as we were trying to find our way to a residence Friday evening to pick up a body, he told me around the turn of the century, funeral directors were called “furnishers” because they furnished everything a family needed for the funeral of a loved one. Because many of them built their own caskets, they also built furniture when the funeral business was slow, and so the relationship between funeral directors and furniture stores was a very close one. He told me this was a part of a class he took on the history and sociology of dying and death in America.

So I will go with Mark’s answer. For $1,000,000. Thank you.

By: Greg England

Greg England — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:43:53 +0000

Well, now you have my curiosity up as to what you figured out regarding the embalming-only company. I don’t know that much about the sport, since I am only licensed as a funeral director and not as an embalmer. But I have stayed in a Holiday Inn Express, so that makes me pretty much an expert on all things.

That said, I am less than an expert on the history of embalming in the United States other than it really “took off” during the War of Northern Aggression as so many soldiers on both sides of the Mason Dixon were being killed. Why there was an embalming business next to a furniture business? Can’t say. They don’t use the same chemicals.

These days, though, there are a number of embalmers who do just that. Embalm. Our embalmer (gifted of God, we think) does embalmings for about 20 different mortuaries. I’ve talked with many, many embalmers / funeral directors who used to do their own embalming, but these days outsource it. This became even more popular out here when the AIDS situation became prevalent. People who once did embalmings would rather pay someone else to take the risk. With AIDS, Hepatitis, and MRSA, it’s a potentially dangerous job.

So many back in 19905 the McClains did embalming for more than one mortuary. Or maybe they supplied the chemicals and equipment for embalming to other mortuaries. My guess is in a town the size of Cotter, there was only one mortuary.

For what it’s worth….