Dan White is used to getting strange looks when he parks the family car: A hearse. But the Springvale man says the wagon isn't a bad ride, when it's not your last.

White and his wife Gina bought the 1990 Chevrolet Caprice hearse two years ago on eBay. During its 16 years in service at a funeral home in Vermont, it shuttled roughly 15,000 people to their final resting places.

Since then, the vehicle licensed MORBID1 has been something of a soccer mom's car from the other side, ferrying groceries home and teens to the prom. It also earns its keep by giving rides to celebrating divorcees and birthday party guests.

To accommodate the living, Whites removed part of the back where coffins used to go and installed a minivan seat, DVD player and stereo system. The plush, blood-red upholstery is all original. There are no inside door handles in the rear of the hearse.

"We took the grandchildren apple-picking in it; it was like a clown car," with kids piling out the back, Dan White said. "When they see a hearse, they say, 'There's Grampy and Granny's car."'

The Whites considered vanity plates reading "Dead Sled" and "Last Ride," but they say MORBID1 allows for expansion of numbers and fits with their business.

Under the name Morbid Productions, they make pet caskets and run a haunted attraction, Dragoken's Dungeon, in the basement of a mill in Somersworth, N.H., around Halloween.

There are also specialty rides to mark a variety of occasions. Jim Parks of Sanford hired the Whites two years ago to drive him and his wife Judy around on her 60th birthday while the couple sipped champagne on their way to a restaurant. The Whites showed up dressed like undertakers.

"She was thrilled to have me think of doing something unusual," Parks said. "She would only suggest it, though, for someone with a good sense of humor."

source: AP

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