My friend Johnny Jennings was raised in the little Mississippi Delta town of Tutwiler, which during his boyhood years consisted of little more than a main street and a few stores, among them the Five & Dime, Etta’s Hot Tamales, Thornton’s Thrift Shop, and DGB Funeral Parlor, owned by Messrs. Diggs, Graves and Berry.
Because Johnny and his pal Freddie were ghoulishly interested in embalming, they’d climb atop Thornton’s, across an alley from the mortuary, and peer through the window as morticians prepared cadavers for their final journey.
Early on, they discovered a way to enhance the experience and terrify passersby with lugubrious sound effects.