Dan The Road Trip Guy
Join Dan the Road Trip Guy as he explores the adventures, memories, and life lessons of diverse guests from all walks of life. This podcast goes beyond the road to celebrate the journey of life by uncovering stories of passion, resilience, and the pursuit of happiness. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or simply love a good story, Dan the Road Trip Guy will leave you inspired and ready to embrace your own adventures. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!
I hope you enjoy the episodes. You can find me at https://www.dannyneal.com.
Dan The Road Trip Guy
A Virtual Ride With My Longtime Friend Hap Strunk
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Ever wondered what it's like to maintain a lifelong friendship from kindergarten to present day? Join me and my dear friend Hap Strunk as we take a virtual drive. Hap opens up about the origins of his name. We talk about his first car, a 1972 Monte Carlo.
Next, we journey into the rich legacy of the funeral home that Hap and his wife Tracy have operated since 1987. We talk about how the computer has impacted the funeral business. We talk about the importance of building trusting relationships especially for their business.
Finally, immerse yourself in Hap's music journey. From having a small bands and playing gigs to creating a local music venue, the Uptown Opry in our home town. Listen to touching stories about his long marriage, encounters with country music legends, and aspirations to play at the Grand Ole Opry.
We conclude with a heartfelt tribute to my Uncle Earl, a man whose generosity left a lasting impact on many. His spirit of kindness serves as a beautiful reminder of the importance of gratitude and community. This episode weaves together the threads of friendship, family, music, and generosity, offering listeners an enriching experience.
Absolutely nothing beats windshield time, a road trip and good conversation in the car. Welcome to another episode of Dan the Road Trip Guy, where we have entertaining conversations about cars and road trips, life lessons and maybe, every now and then, a little advice. I'm your host, dan Neal Road Trip Extraordinaire, and now buckle. Now and then, a little advice. I'm your host, dan Neal Road Trip Extraordinaire, and now buckle up and enjoy the show. Sometimes in life there are do-overs and take-twos. Well, my conversation today is just that. It's a do-over.
Speaker 2:In June of 2022, and it was one of my first conversations with this guest and the conversation was great, other than when we finished up and I listened back to it, there was this constant buzz. I tried and tried and hours of editing trying to get that silly little buzz out and it just didn't work. I am confident, after 53 episodes, that this conversation is going to be even better than the first one. My guest today is Hap Strunk. We have known each other I thought about it today for about 58 years. We started what would have been kindergarten today and we graduated high school hate to say it 45 years ago.
Speaker 2:This month, hap, along with his wife Tracy, live in our hometown, been there for years and they run one of the finest funeral homes in the region, in my opinion. I know firsthand Hap, tracy and their staff take great care with their families because they've served our family. Hap's also a musical guy. We'll talk about that during this little virtual road trip we're on and I'm excited to take this second road trip with my longtime friend. So welcome to the show, hap, thank you, Dan.
Speaker 1:I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you and I was thinking about that earlier in the week, how long we'd known each other. I think you're one of the first friends I made when we went to, like you said, kindergarten now but preschool or whatever you want to call it. It was about a six-week period before first grade, I think, but she was one of the first friends I met.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and where we grew up you didn't live close to one another, so it wasn't like you walked down the sidewalk to visit School was where we saw our friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you lived in town and out in the country on a farm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you lived way out. Seemed like forever back in those days. Pretty short drive, it sure did. Hap, that's not really your name. So growing up you were happy. Somewhere along the way, probably like I changed mine from Danny to Dan, you changed from happy to happy.
Speaker 1:Right, you go a little older and you change, it right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, how did you get that name?
Speaker 1:You know I'm not sure my dad started calling me that. There's quite a gap between I'm the fifth child and my brother, who was the fourth child. There's an 11-year span between us and my dad started calling me that and it stuck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, this is Dan, the road trip guy, and I always talk about cars to kick this thing off, and I remember your cool car from high school days. Tell us about that car, what it was and where you got it, and just some details.
Speaker 1:Well, I had two. My first car was a 71 Chevelle Malibu and it unbeknown to me. It had been totaled and rebuilt and the starter went out. One day, and I was under it putting the starter on, I saw something hanging. I took hold of it and it was a strip of tar that had been put on the frame where the frame had been straightened with the welded rope.
Speaker 1:Anyway, the nice car I had in high school was a 72 Monte Carlo and it was sweet. I had the 350 in it and air and all the appointments that you could get in those days and I had the deep-dish Vette wheels. I had six-inch in the front and eight-inch in the back. I loved that car. I used to ride through downtown Whitley City so I could look at it in the windows of the stores.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right on. Was that an automatic or a stick?
Speaker 1:It was automatic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, automatic on the column. Eh, On the column. Uh-huh yeah, Did that? Have bench seats in the front?
Speaker 1:It had a bench seat in the front and some of them, the Supersports, had the buckets with the shifter and the floor. Yeah, what color was it? It was white with a green vinyl top.
Speaker 2:Yeah, green vinyl top Not something you see today on most cars, right? No?
Speaker 1:no, and the interior was green and it was a nice gray cloth. Monte Carlo was a nice car in its day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And where did you get that car? I bought that from a lady named Joy Kidd. Her brother, ronnie, taught school and he and I played music together, and she was going to sell it and I bought it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how long did you keep that car?
Speaker 1:I kept that car. I see about three, about three and a half, four years. Yeah, so after we got out of high school, yeah, I drove it out of high school and I put probably a hundred thousand miles. That car had about 55 or 60 on it when I bought it, which in those days was kind of high, and I probably put another 100,000 on it and didn't really ever do anything much to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where'd it go?
Speaker 1:Where'd it go after you? I sold it to a guy from town here and he drove it a while and I don't know what went with it. Yeah, but every time I see one it turns my head, you know, yeah it turns your head and you kind of go shoulda, coulda, woulda kept that car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wish I'd had somewhere to put it and just left it. It needed some things. When I got rid of it, the front end needed rebuilt. It was kind of spongy, you know, yeah, and and the engine could still rebuild the transmission too, but it served me faithfully.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you, yeah, back in those days, putting 150,000 miles on a car.
Speaker 1:It was very unusual for a car in those days. It sure was.
Speaker 2:Hey, I'll turn to and I don't know if you've been on one, but any road trips in your life that you remember fondly.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, trace and I had been married a couple of years and we went to Florida, took a road trip and that was really the first time that she and I traveled that far together and we enjoyed that.
Speaker 1:And now we take the grandkids somewhere down there every year. But I guess the first road trip I remember was my grandmother my dad's mother lived in Dayton, kentucky, just this side of the river, and there's a friend of mine calls it the Great Ohio Ocean. We would go there and we would leave real early in the morning when it was dark, and my dad had a Falcon, a four-door Falcon or a Fairlane, one of those type cars. They were a compact car for the day but they were still really roomy and my sister and I would sleep in the back seat and drive. And of course I-75 wasn't finished completely in those days. One of the things that sticks in my mind is Connie Smith had a song out about that time called Cincinnati, ohio, and as we were going down the big hill there toward the river her song came on a little AM radio. I thought how cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, coming down that hill into cincinnati was always a fun experience and then let's see, I took a trip.
Speaker 1:Uh, I flew with a friend out to omaha and drove a 79 lincoln back and that's been about 25 years ago now. That thing had a hood from from luck like a half a mile, you could land a small aircraft on it, and two days of driving that and I got back in my Buick and I thought, hey, where'd it go?
Speaker 2:That's good. You're in the funeral business I mentioned that in the intro Right and you're probably one of the finest at it that I've ever seen, and I'm not just saying that, but you've cared for our family over the years and done it extremely well.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate that. They just do got starts in the heart. Of course, when you're in a community our size, you know everybody and everyone's friend or family because of folks who are not friends or family go somewhere else and so you're serving the folks you care about and love the most.
Speaker 2:What was it that got you into that business? I mean, you know, you hear people. Oh, I had this epiphany about what I was going to do in life.
Speaker 1:What was?
Speaker 2:that for you.
Speaker 1:Well, I really don't know except the fact that my dad died when I was very young. As you remember, we were in the sixth grade and I was just impressed with the way the funeral services carried out and how kind the people were. I always kind of kept that in the back of my mind, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the funeral home you own. I was trying to look up how old it is. I believe it was from 1920, maybe something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as a matter of fact, we just came from our state convention a week before I asked, and we were honored for our 100th year.
Speaker 2:Oh wow.
Speaker 1:We were told it was 1927, and then we done some research and found out it was actually 1915. But the folks that I brought out got involved in 1924. But the folks that I bought out got involved in 1924. There were three brothers Albert, jeff and Carl, the Hickman brothers. And you know Albert Hickman was one of the early entrepreneurs in McCreary County and dependent of the Stearns folks, of the Stearns company. One of his businesses was the funeral home. At that time Stearns had an undertaking company and in 1948, the Hickmans bought that and sold the funeral home in Oneida to an employee, moved over on what's called the Hickman Hill. That was in 1948, and they were there until the mid-60s 67, 68, something like that when they moved in the building we're in now. The building was originally built in 1915 by a Cookie Joe Williams family, his grandfather built that home.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow.
Speaker 1:And they lived there I'm not sure how long they lived there and then the Mitchell Fennin family bought it at some point and lived there. That's who the Hickman family bought it from.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, all right, good history, you know. As I've gotten older, I guess I love reading about the history of our hometown and then Kentucky in general, just learning some things I didn't know. I'm in the technology world and of course we've seen a lot of changes in 40 years. What's a big change you've seen in the funeral home business?
Speaker 1:Well, when I was going to mortuary school back in the day they started talking about computers. That was in the early 80s. I thought what in the world is a computer good for in a funeral home? We probably had one of the first fax machines in town, maybe the second. It seemed like the school board maybe had one. But we had a family call us from California and had to get paperwork back and forth to the airport and this and that we knew about this technology. So we had that.
Speaker 1:And then I guess the first thing we probably changed was the printing of the memorial folders. There was a printer here in town, not a commercial printer, but had a press taught printing and things in school and they would do our memorial folders. You'd call them, you'd order your cardstock and take two of them and then you'd call them and tell them who you had, give them the details and what have you, the times and all, and tell them how many cards you wanted. Back in those days an average service would take 300 to 400 cards. Copiers came along, were more advanced and we bought a copier and started doing that ourselves. Then the next technology was scanners. We learned about scanners and how to use them and began to put the picture of the deceased person on the inside of the folder. And I remember very well the first one. It was all done, tracy done it by hand and it was good for the time. But you look at now and look at what we're able to do with all this digital stuff. It was very crude but it started that trend and that's done universally almost now.
Speaker 1:The next thing was videos. We were the first in our area and one of the first in the state to do the memorial videos and there wasn't a program like there is now or several to choose from. Tracy would do that with a PowerPoint program and have to tailor the slides and the music and I've seen her spend eight hours building one. We were the first to do that and that's caught on and just about universal. We used to build them for our competitor because they didn't know how and their families were asking for them because they'd seen them at our place. So a lot of things like that that we were on the cutting edge of and our radio station, weqo, was the lay-in station that started about 1974 or 5.
Speaker 1:They went dark in 1987 or 88. We came here in 87. It seemed like spring of 88, we came here in 87. It seemed like spring of 88, they were off the air. So I went to Radio Shack and bought just an entry machine with different lenses. It was micro cassettes with different lengths of tape and I would write the obituary out and then record it into that Folks could call and get the update. You know, and we still use that now. It's still available now and sometimes it would take. We had a way to count it at one time. Sometimes it'd take 3,000 calls a day.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, interesting. I've been lately to a number of funerals where there was cremation. Have you seen an uptick?
Speaker 1:in cremation. It is there's an uptick in cremation. It is there's an uptick in that and I think there's several reasons for it.
Speaker 1:Some people what we have always done in the funeral business has been an extension of the church. You know the funeral service as you and I know it, and what we've had for our parents is a Christian funeral service. You know you have the church people, you have a minister, you have a Christian singing and a minister and all, and they'll go ahead and have a Christian service and do cremation instead of burial and then some folks will do cremation and have a memorial service where a minister may get up and say some things and then the family and friends will tell stories. We had a service like that this past week and it was very meaningful for everyone. I encourage that, even when we have a traditional Christian service, because it just adds meaning. When you and your brother spoke at your parents' service, that was very touching and very heartfelt and very meaningful for the folks that was there and a wonderful way to have honored your parents. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, that's good info on the funeral home business because I don't think a lot of people don't know about it. Thank you, You're welcome.
Speaker 1:Thank you for your question.
Speaker 2:I mentioned in the intro, you're also a music kind of guy. You're a musician. I don't remember when that started or how you got involved in music, but tell me about that.
Speaker 1:Well, we were about the eighth grade I think, and you know, my mother never learned to drive and my dad died when I was very young and so we were out there on the farm, uh, and didn't come to town except to school and maybe a couple of times a month and for something to do. You know, you can only hunt and fish so much. And I've got ahold of a guitar and began to learn, and it was my good fortune to run across Ronnie Kidd, who, uh, taught junior high school there at Pine Knot and he played. We struck up a friendship that lasts to this day. He began to teach me things and gave me my first job in a band, and then some friends of mine our age put a little band together and we were purely awful but we got a little better. That's how that kind of started. It's something I've done.
Speaker 1:I went away to Mortuary College. Yeah, that's how that kind of started. It's something I've done. I went away to Mortuary College. I met a young man from Mason City, iowa, who is one of the best Earl Scruggs-style banjo players on earth. He hung out a lot with Earl, they were good friends and we played a lot of shows around southern Indiana. There We'd pick up banjo, go to a festival and be some guys under a tree and say, hey, we're on at 3.30, come on. And it just developed from that. In 2006, I rented a place here in town an empty store building and started playing some music in there and it grew and we moved it to a larger building and we ran that show for about 14 years I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was called the Uptown Opry, the Uptown.
Speaker 1:Opry, the Uptown Opry, yeah, and we had a lot of folks out of Nashville in and out of there. You know, the music community, especially with social media, is easy to connect with folks. The gentleman that played steel for us, artie McCreary, played steel guitar, knew a lot of people and Dan Ebert would bring them in. And we've worked with a lot of they're called side men, people who play for the artist. They're not in the front, they're in the back or the side and so they're side men and we had a lot of their guys come through. Steve Warner's brother, terry, was our drummer for about the last six or seven years. We were there. Steve came one night and worked a four-hour set with us and had a good time. He wasn't any fresher. That's probably one of the most memorable evenings I've ever had playing music.
Speaker 1:Back in my bluegrass days in the early 80s I got to work some in the Bill Monroe. That was quite an honor and we were living in Gallatin and Gallatin was a place that a lot of country music people lived and so we got to meet a lot of those folks and it's, you know, that was back in the day when Barbara Mandrell was really, really big and she lived out on the lake in Gallatin. It was not uncommon to see her in town having lunch or at the Kroger buying groceries or whatever, and folks just spoke and went on. They didn't. To give you a comparison, we were in Gatlinburg one time and Conway Twitty was there coming down the street and folks noticed, even just swarmed him, and that didn't happen in Gatlin, you know, people were respectful and let them have their space. They were always nice, always spoke, you know, and friendly, but folks let them have their space.
Speaker 2:Hey, you know and friendly, but folks let them have their space. Hey, you're married to Tracy. How'd you meet her?
Speaker 1:Tombstone Junction the summer of 1978. And that makes us together 45 years. We started dating along about this time of year. We dated all through high school. We were high school sweethearts, dated all the time I was in Mortuary College. We graduated from Mortuary College on Friday, august the 8th, and we got married the next Saturday, on the 15th, and that will be 43 years ago, august 15th of this year.
Speaker 2:Congratulations, Thank you. You'll have to have been married a long time too 42 years in August, August 7th yeah. We're just a year behind you. If you could take a road trip with anyone, you might have to think about this one for a minute, living or deceased. Who would it be? Where would you go? What would you drive? What do you think you'd talk about?
Speaker 1:Hmm, I'd want to go with my dad. Hmm, and maybe go out west, yeah, and maybe pull a pop-up camper, go from KOA campground to KOA campground until you got tired and just listen to the things that he knew about his childhood and talk about things that I've done and would still like to do, and about my family and some things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's one question you think you might ask him?
Speaker 1:That's a good question what it was like in the war. Did he have any? You know, back in those days it was called shell shock and we knew some folks that had that, I guess, and maybe had some behavioral issues and folks would say, oh, you have to look over here and he's shell shocked. I would just like to know more about the war and what it felt like he actually lied about his age when he was early, what it felt like he actually lied about his age when he was 17. You don't catch many kids doing that these days. No, probably not. And they were called the greatest generation for a reason. We could look back at their accomplishments coming through the Great Depression, they went into the Second World War and, liberating the world, came home and then built the greatest post-war economy known to man. They were called the greatest generation for a reason they understood sacrifice and commitment, working toward goals and delayed gratification, and things that this generation and some and a goodly part of ours doesn't understand. Strong work ethic yes.
Speaker 2:Hey, anything on your bucket list that you want to accomplish?
Speaker 1:or do I'd like to hang on to my bucket as long as I can?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, we're going to do that. I never say I'm getting old, I just say I'm getting older.
Speaker 1:You know there's some things I'd like to do. One of the things I would love to do is I'd like to play the Grand Ole Opry one time. I know I'm not a quality of entertainer enough to have my own slot or a guest spot or anything, but I'd love to work that as a side man with Steve Warner. There you go when his band goes out and play rhythm guitar for him and just say I've been there, I have stood in the circle with Roy Acuff.
Speaker 1:In the 80s when the Nashville Network came into being, we were in Gallatin, which was 30 miles away from Nashville, and there was this country music game show. I went down to the Opry House where they direct this and took a written test about country music and I was on two episodes of that show, Did very well. I went down to the Opry House where they direct this and took a written test about country music and I was on two episodes of that show, Did very well. And on supper break the studio was the back of the new Opry House, so I was just out during supper break walking around and found myself on stage and just kind of looking at the seats and things and thinking about the history of the place and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:And Mr Acuff came up and said son, do you know where you're standing? I said yes, sir. He said do you know who I am, Mr Acuff, if I didn't know who you were, I wouldn't have any business being in here. That was the days before everybody carried a camera everywhere and there's no photographic, as Bozo the Clown used to say, photographic pimento of that. But as bozo the clown, you say photographic pimento of that. But uh, that, that was a that was a.
Speaker 2:That was a quite a quite an experience. Yeah, well, keep that bucket list alive and we'll keep on. Uh, we'll keep on going. Hey, happy you're a successful business guy there in our hometown. Uh, I respect you a great deal. Is there any piece of advice you would give to other business people, young people that are getting started in life?
Speaker 1:Anything you want to leave us with there is. The first thing they need to do is pray and seek God's will. If that's what they're supposed to be doing, and if it is, they'll be successful. The biggest thing is to persevere and keep going.
Speaker 1:The gentleman that I worked for in Gallatin, tennessee, paul Alexander, was a wonderful mentor, fine Christian man and one of the most professional funeral directors I've ever known, and he taught me so very much. And it took me a while to work my nerve up to meet with him and tell him to leave and come up here. He said well, I hate to lose you, but I understand. And he said I want to tell you some things. He said there's going to be times that you're going to be so depressed that you don't want to get out of bed. But you get out of bed, you put on your best suit and tie and you go to town and act like you own the town. Whenever anybody sees you, see you down and out. And he was right. And on those days I would put on my best coat and tie and I called it the baloney sandwich circuit. I'd get in my truck and I'd hit four or five country stores that still made sandwiches back in those days your Uncle Earl's being one of them and have a sandwich there and just visit with the folks. Do that two or three days a week sometimes and I was in a lot of them.
Speaker 1:We had a very active Lions Club. I belonged to that. It was in the Chamber of Commerce and active in church and you just you got to meet folks. Business is like this People will go out of their way to do business with people they like and respect and they'll go out of their way to avoid people they dislike and don't trust. And it's all about trust. Price factors somewhat, but that's not the driving thing. The driving thing in our profession is who do you trust? Who do you know that when you walk away and leave mom and dad in their care they're going to treat them just like their own parents? And who's going to be professionally dignified in directing the actual service itself and make sure it runs smoothly because you don't get do-overs?
Speaker 2:Well said, hap, and I think any business could really take that to heart, because we seem to live in a society now that's become purely transactional and those relationships that you talk about driving around and making that's just foreign to a lot of people today.
Speaker 1:It is, and business models, I know, have changed, but ours hasn't. It's still a personal relationship, a business. Ours hasn't. It's still a personal relationship, a business. Anyone starting any kind of business needs to understand that it's going to take a long time to. If it's like a boat, you're going to idle a lot before you can get up on a plane and always be grateful when you get on a plane for the folks who helped you. I allow it to the big water, but perseverance, you know, I kind of feel like the tortoise and the hare. I'm kind of the tortoise, but I'm finishing my course.
Speaker 2:Good advice Just persevere and pray. Good advice. Thank you, Hap. Hey, we're wrapping up on this virtual road trip. How do people find you? How do they?
Speaker 1:find your business. Well, of course we have our website, wwwstruckfhnet. There's some history on there and what we have available and those kinds of things For the local folks. We've been on that corner there for nearly 60 years. Trace and I have been here 37. We advertise in the paper here once in a while, but the website's mostly that. We still advertise on radio and we do things on social media. We have a social media page and I try to regularly with something inspirational and something beneficial to folks. We get a lot of hits.
Speaker 1:I put a story on there sometime last year that I read. It was about I don't know where it came hits. I put a story on there sometime last year that I read. I don't know where it came from, I certainly didn't write it and I was not able to get the author credit because I don't know who he is.
Speaker 1:But the story about a gentleman whose wife passed away and he reluctantly had to go live with his daughter. He wasn't happy about that and he was hateful and snappy. Life as he knew it ended one day. And here he is in, happy about that. And he was hateful and snappy.
Speaker 1:And you know, life as he knew it ended one day and here he is in a new place and you know they've kind of changed roles. She's the caregiver and he needs the care. She prayed a lot about what to do to help him be more comfortable and she found an old dog in a shelter and he bonded with that old dog and it's a wonderful story about dogs and the friendship he made with the dog and how they loved each other right up to the end and that thing has had over a million hits. Wow, you know, it's just a great feel-good story. Yeah, you know, and I think people love to read stuff like that. There's so much division and hate and rancor in our society anymore. I think people love to read things like that to realize there is another side of life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would agree. Yeah, Well, thank you for sharing that. Hap. I can't thank you enough for coming on. We'll call it lap number two of our road trips. I'm pretty sure you were probably my first guest.
Speaker 1:I think so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, other than my daughter, and I probably should have known better. I should have tried out some more, but I can't thank you enough.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate the opportunity. We've been lifelong friends. We don't see each other as often as I'd like, but we pick up right where we were. We do. That's the mark of good friendship.
Speaker 1:I want to say one other thing about your uncle, earl Anderson. Oh sure he was one of the finest Christian men that I ever knew. He and my mother went to school together and when my father died my mother didn't know about my dad having all the finances. My mother didn't know where we were and what was going on. I remember Earl and Pearl came to the funeral home. Earl, they both hugged my mother and Earl said I'm a gene. Anything you need from my store, you call me. I know you don't drive, I'll have the boys bring it Anything you need. She said Earl, I don't know when I can pay you. He said don't worry about that, you'll get things scraped out. Anything you need, you call me. I found that to be so and I got to visit with Earl not long before he passed over. When you're a kid you don't understand those things, but as a man I did, and I went to tell him how much I appreciated it and how much it always meant to me.
Speaker 2:He was a special guy. He really was. Until we meet up again. You can find me on the internet at dantheroadtripguycom. I hope you will follow this podcast so that you don't miss any upcoming episodes, and share it with your family and friends so they can enjoy the stories of my guests also. Until we meet again on a future episode, keep having conversations with each other and keep driving.
