TIME OUT TO WATCH THE GAME CALLING HOURS CUT FOR SUPER BOWL.(Local)

Byline: Jay Jochnowitz Staff writer

If they'd written the book of Ecclesiastes in 1992, it might have said: There's a time to be born, a time to die, a time to weep, and a time to get home for the Super Bowl.

Scan the obituaries any other weekend of the year and you'll find that calling hours at local funeral homes run in the afternoon and into evening, say, from 7 to 9 p.m.

But take a closer look at Super Bowl Sunday.

It's not a universal trend, but evening hours are often cut out of funerals on this one Sunday of the year. A sampling of obituaries in Saturday's Times Union, for example, showed that out of nine instances in which calling hours were scheduled for Sunday, four were daytime only, running no later than 6 p.m.

Funeral directors say it's no coincidence.

In some families and circles of friends, they say, calling hours have a tough time competing with the biggest kickoff of the year.

That's a reality Tom Salvadore of DeVito-Salvadore Funeral Home in Mechanicville has dealt with over the years after seeing more than one family choose to wind up the wake by 5 p.m.

"The thought was, a lot of people wouldn't come because of the Super Bowl," he said. "That's a consideration."

While it isn't an actual holiday, Super Bowl Sunday often causes people to make the same kinds of adjustments funeral parlors deal with at times like Thanksgiving and Christmas - perhaps more so, said one director who asked not to be identified.

"Some people feel that Super Bowl Sunday is bigger than traditional holidays," he said.

Worrying about attendance isn't the only reason for curtailing a wake, the funeral director noted. This year, he said, one family that needed to schedule calling hours for Sunday decided to limit them to the afternoon out of respect to the deceased.

"Super Bowl Sunday was one of this man's favorite holidays and they said, 'We know he wouldn't want to impose.'"

In a nation that at this time last year held a Super Bowl as a war was building in the Persian Gulf, an evening wake isn't likely to stop die- hard fans. For them, some funeral directors keep the game going nearby.

"Nothing stops," said Gordon Light of Light's Funeral Home in Schenectady, who leaves an office television on if the family asks, which some do.

Others, aware that there will likely be someone who just has to know the score, keep the game on in an extra room or in an office.

"The guys will drift in and out," said George Wagner of Rockefeller Funeral Home in Rensselaer, who keeps a television on in the office. "Their wives come in and drag them out."

Salvadore, too, keeps the game on in one of his other rooms, "either with the volume down low or off, so people can drift in and out and keep track of things."

Michael Reinhart of Parker Bros. Memorial in Watervliet said he has had requests from people who want to use the TV in his office for the game, but the set is only wired for videocassettes. "That kind of bursts their bubble when they find they can't watch the game," said Reinhart. But fans aren't totally out of luck; Reinhart checks the score periodically himself on the radio, when he has the time.

In some cases, funeral directors recalled, they've seen Super Bowl evening calling hours that were virtually male-free. Sometimes, Reinhart said, women who know that will happen go ahead with their plans anyway. "Their husbands and children are going to be watching the game, so the women don't mind being here."

The enthusiasm can get intense: Wagner said he's heard men flatly refuse to come to evening calling hours on Super Bowl Sunday; another funeral director said he's turned down requests to have a TV on in the same room as the wake.

If it all sounds a little excessive, those like Salvadore say it's part of accommodating people in all their diversity.

"I figured as a funeral director I would also go along with what people asked," he said. "I tell them, it's your affair. Sometimes you can get too frumpy, too structured, in this business."

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PHOTO - TIMES UNION PHOTO BY TOM LAPOINT

INTENSE LOOKS - Patrons pack the Rooster's Restaurant and SportsClub in Albany to watch Sunday's Super Bowl. The Washington Redskinsdefeated the Buffalo Bills by a score of 37-24.