54 Dating back to the Greeks and Romans , coffins have varied in shape, having been in the form of an urn, or triangular, the body in a sitting position, or hexagonal like modern coffins. In some cases, clay was molded around the body and baked, and the Egyptian coffins , or sarcophagi, and mummy chests were shaped to the form of the human body. Roughhewn wooden coffins were common among the American Indians and later in the United States, with some using glass for the lids so the body could be viewed without opening the coffin. It is not known exactly why or when the toothpick coffins were used in this area, but some oldtimers can remember when the coffins were just square boxes, calling the shaped ones "fancy." One funeral director who was contacted about the coffins pictured said they were expensive coffins for that period and in that region. It was the practice for neighbors to gather and build a coffin when one in the community died, as there were no funeral homes nearby; however, there were sometimes certain of the men who made and sold coffins as a means of making extra money. These were usually even more "fancy" than the ones pictured, having brass handles and being covered with black cloth on the outside, but the pattern for shape was the basic toothpick style. Washington Americus Luttrell was my great uncle, now deceased, and he helped in the making of many such coffins on Thomas Ridge in Casey County were he was born and lived all his life. According to my mother, Uncle Wash made the first of the three pictured coffins for himself and kept it hidden in his back room for a long time. It was a secret he did not want revealed for some reason, perhaps due to some superstition about dying once people knew about the coffin. He lived alone in the house where he and my grandmother were born, while my grandfather had married and built another house a few hundred yards from him; as a result, my mother and all her brothers and sisters (fifteen of them) were in and out of Uncle Wash's house daily. After one of the children discovered the coffin in the back room covered up, and of course told everyone else, he took it upon himself to build one for his brother and his brother's wife, my grandparents. The one for himself, he had lined in blue satin, and the one for his brother, he lined in yellow, and the one for his brother's wife, he lined in pink. These were all kept in the back room. As the years passed, funeral homes became more commonplace and people began to buy "ready-made" coffins. My mother recalls several discussions between my grandfather and grandmother about the coffins Uncle Wash had made for them. The conversation would usually come up evenings when they sat around the fireplace spitting tobacco juice into the fire. My grandfather allowed that since his brother was older than he, he would die first, and he would not know it if they buried him in a nice ready-made coffin from town; then they promised each other that whoever died first would put the other one away in a nice new casket too. They never told Uncle Wash that they were ashamed of the old coffins he had made for them so long ago, but he must have known they would not bury him in his, for when he died, he had set aside enough money to cover funeral costs, including a coffin from town. So now three toothpick coffins, once considered fancy enough to give anybody a decent burial, have been relegated to the chicken coop/all-purpose shed out near his old house, and 1 am glad I have had an opportunity to see them. I like to think that my Uncle Wash imagined himself and his brother and his brother's wife lying in the coffins as he made them, and I like to think that he imagined them at peace. That is really more important than whether or not they were buried in them. Hs** 55...