Yes, we have conventions too!

Sammy Oakey's, President of Oakey's Funeral Service & Crematory

 

 

Visitors to Hotel Roanoke on Monday morning this week may have been a bit dismayed to see two hearses backed up near the doors to the conference center. A glance thru the doors of the hotel would have revealed cases of embalming fluid, caskets and urns of every variety, and burial suits and gowns. Nope, there were no mass fatalities (thankfully) involved, just the 121st annual meeting of the Virginia Funeral Directors Association. Just as car dealers, bankers, and insurance agents have conventions for their respective occupations, so too does the death care profession have get-togethers for funeral directors and embalmers. While good fellowship and renewing old ties are pretty high on the ”to do” list at such events, so too is continuing education, honouring the memories of deceased colleagues, and seeing what new products the funeral vendors are showcasing. Oh yeah, eating is usually tied to each and every area of the convention!

 

 I can remember going to these meetings as a youngster and teenager in the sixties and seventies, usually with one goal in mind: to fill up a bag with as many novelties, knick-knacks, and pieces of candy as I could possibly cram in there! Think of it as Halloween in June. Each sales booth at the convention usually has something attractive to get prospective buyers over to hear their spiel. Since the pitch is only about three to five minutes, I always thought it was a great trade-off to hear some smooth talking salesman tout the advantages of his product as long as I received a yardstick, ink pen, flashlight, or other trinket in return. Even better, if the salesperson was tied up talking to someone else, my grubby little thirteen year old hands would just slide whatever they had to offer into my (complimentary!) bag. Some of the stuff they handed out was pretty bigtime: bags of pecans, fingernail clippers, and even seedlings to take home and plant.

 Of course now I am less interested in the freebies and more interested in how any new products the salespeople have can help better the Oakey organization. Still, when I saw co-workers walking around eating from little bags of M & M’s, I was tempted to yell “Where did you get those?!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ by oakeys on June 26, 2009.