Heloise: Use flashers during funeral

Posted: Monday, March 01, 2010

Dear Heloise: Recently, we traveled to San Antonio to attend a funeral. The funeral directors there had what I thought was a wonderful, practical idea for the procession. With automatic headlights, the old custom of funeral-procession members turning on their headlights in daylight to alert other drivers is no longer effective.

This funeral home, in conjunction with the police motorcycle escorts, asked that drivers following the hearse turn on their emergency flashers.

And, Heloise, it worked. The emergency flashers definitely sent the message to other drivers that this was a funeral procession.

In a day and time when many drivers no longer pull off to the side of the road for these events, I was gratified to see that the majority of drivers did exactly that upon seeing our procession. Not only was the act of turning on the flashers a signal to all other drivers on the road, it had a definite safety aspect. I hope more funeral homes and police departments take up the practice. - C.A.S., via e-mail

Thank you for sharing this valuable update. We checked with several funeral homes here in San Antonio, and they said it is an accepted practice today to turn on your emergency flashers and headlights when in a funeral procession.

This is relatively new, since many cars today do have daytime running lights. Also, some funeral homes have a banner to place on the antenna that reads "Funeral." This gives you the right of way in traffic, but still always yield to emergency vehicles such as ambulances and firetrucks. - Heloise

Dear Heloise: The cardboard drink holders from fast-food restaurants come in handy for multiple uses - here are some of my favorites:

Storing cleansers.

Organizing the pantry.

Transporting other beverages or using in vehicles that don't have enough cup holders. - Alma Brooks, Tyler

Dear Heloise: To make beautiful place mats for your table and to help keep your tablecloth clean, use last year's calendar pictures and put two months back to back. Have them laminated with heavy plastic. They are so pretty and durable. If you get tired of one picture, turn it over for another picture for a while. - June Bomar, Abilene

Dear Heloise: Plastic packages can be extremely difficult to open. Many packages can be safely opened using a can opener. Just use as if opening a can. I've found it even will cut around corners. - K.B., San Angelo
