I started my funeral career in the old days when graves were dug with a shovel! I was 15 and, if memory serves, the fee for opening and closing a grave was $125.

Now at 15 years old, I was a good soldier and I marched and did as I was told. So as I worked through that long, hot, humid South Mississippi summer I was paid $50 for each grave using my pointed shovel to dig the grave…