Another small town quirk

As I was driving to Tullahoma today for another of countless trips to Lowes, something very quaint and small town happened. Something that made me both feel proud and glad I live in one.

The main road that connects Manchester to Tullahoma is a 4 lane highway with a grass median separating the south-bound and north-bound lanes; speed limit 55 on highway 55. Of course most traffic travels at 60-65.

It is a lovely drive passing mostly through countryside and farm land until you hit the outskirts of either town.

Anyway, on this particular day I was one of roughly 40 vehicles heading south-bound when on the north-bound side of the highway a funeral procession came lumbering at 40 miles an hour with 25 cars in tow.

Here is the wonderful small town part. Not only did all the cars on the north-bound side of the highway pull over to pay respect and let the procession pass, but the south-bound side did as well. The 25 car procession stretched roughly a half mile and for at least 2 miles of highway in both directions, all non-funeral traffic was pulled over to a complete stop on the shoulders in respect of the deceased and thier family. Who was it? I don't know.

I have been doing this along with all of my neighbors as long as I can remember and it never dawned on me how personal this is. In big cities you don't get this. Maybe it is a southern thing, but not until the very last car in the procession had made a wide berth and passed each car did we slowly creep back into our lanes and continue our progress.

Strange and wonderful...

I hope this happens at my funeral. I really don't have many wishes as far as that goes, but I hope that happens and I hope I get covered up by my family members by hand. I fully intend to take shovel in hand and fill in the graves of my loved ones, alone if I must as I will not have them impersonally interned by power tools. Again, perhaps a southern thing, but there it is.