Digging in , and then a celebration of Robert Legault's life

[ellen_datlow]

Yesterday, Jeanne Legault (Robert's sister), Jack Womack, Ellie Lang, some other of Robert's friends, and I tried to make order out of Robert's apartment on the Lower East Side. It was astounding: let me just say that Robert was a dumpster diver and acquired a LOT--just an example or two. I was in charge of the last room (which actually was the front room in a railroad flat)and it took me 5 hours (no exaggeration) to make my way two feet into the room, all the while bagging up papers, clothing --either for the garbage or for the Salvation Army, and trying to move 45s, record albums, videos, cds, dvds, magazines, and other sundry out of the way. I filled (with Jack's help) 4 1/2 garbage bags full of formerly neatly stacked or hanging off a tie rack neckties: hundreds of them. There were hundreds of t-shirts on the floor neatly folded in stacks--but layers of them.

After about five hours I was stymied by the fact that once I hit that two feet mark, there were stacks of record albums that blocked me from going further into the room without moving those stacks...and so far there's no place to move them TO. Also, we were out of room for the garbage bags...no more space downstairs in the garbage area and no more room on the landing, and no more room in the actual apt. We're hoping to get a dumpster tomorrow or Tuesday so that while Jeanne is back in Seattle--she's got to get back to work--we will continue to excavate until she returns as soon as she can. It may sound awful, but in fact it was like an archeological dig and I have to say kind of cathartic in a weird way.

An aside here: I've got packrat tendencies myself and I (and my sister, too) have always enjoyed digging through our mom's drawers (and when we were children and visiting our grandparents, our grandmother's too) --I don't recall if I've mentioned this in the blog before. But after being in Robert's place I told my fellow diggers that if I don't invite them over to my apt for a couple of months to please do an intervention!!!! And this evening when I got home I dumped the Playbills I've been saving in a stack for the past couple of years.

This morning was Robert's Memorial Service. About 150 family (only Jeanne and Robert's cousins) and friends attended and several people got up and spoke about him. Afterwards, 35 of us went to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame to brunch and drink and talk more about Robert. His ashes joined us and some of us drank bourbon in his name.
And finally, 12 of us walked down the block for some more drinking.

Photos below:
Memorial Service and afterwards

Comments

[rosefox]

I'm really sorry I couldn't make the memorial service; it sounds like it went as well as such things can. Blessings on you for helping Jeanne make sense of his place and belongings.

[lagilman]

Ellen -- should we reschedule, if there's still work to be done in the apartment? Or will you want/need the break?

[aqeldroma.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting those pictures. It looks like there was a lot of laughter amid the grief. I hope you're doing well with it all.

amazingly kind of you...

[themadblonde]

to give all that time & energy to a departed friend. Sounds a bit like the time my father & sister had cleaning out my grandmother's house. She had pill bottles 40 years old, full & w/ a note attached saying "Prescribed for x; never took."

I think it was Dan Posnanski who told me about THE OTHER SIDE. Many collectors want to preserve their collections beyond their own lives & donate them to universities, or foundations, etc. I never understood why someone would want to break up a painstakingly amassed collection short of absolute financial need, but Dan made a good case. He explained that, as a collector, he could well appreciate the joy of the hunt, & could understand wanting to afford that opportunity to another collector. I mention this because I'm thinking of the joy of the collectors who will now have access to all those records & books.

Ashes to ashes & dust to dust.

From Robert's High School Class

[mikepoore.livejournal.com]

Friends, last April we celebrated our 40th anniversary of graduation from Landon School in Bethesda, MD. (Being the class agent, I was one of the protagonists for our part of the alumni weekend.) It was a great pleasure to see Robert there. We were all enriched by his presence. Thus, his death seems so much more tragic, as we were just shaking hands not too long ago.
On behalf of the Class of '67, we feel a great loss in Robert's passing. I wish to thank all of you for your kind words here and the tributes you arranged. I would also like to thank my friends from Landon, especially Dave Yost, John Mann, Scott vanNess, and Terry Downs, for keeping the information available to our classmates and for being there for Robert's friends and loved-ones.
This bromide may not mean much to all, but, Robert, here's a nickel in the grass for you, my friend.

Sincerely,

Mike Poore
Chantilly, VA

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow - I can't even visualize what you're describing! I have packrat tendencies, too, but after doing the move to college and home again 4 years in a row on a 15 hour drive to Indiana (in a Caravan with a car-top carrier) and then subesequent moves, I have succeeded to some extent in squashing the hell out of my tendency to save. I am still snared by the ticket-stub and playbill variety of packratting, though. Papers! I still have some valentines people gave me in 2nd grade.

Anyway, I think that's really great of you and the others to help Robert's sister out like that. It's good that his life is being gone through by people who knew him.

Condolences

[nwmediaarts.livejournal.com]

Hi Ellen;

I was so shocked and grieved to hear of Robert's passing. Jack filled me in on the phone and also sent me the wonderful obit he wrote. It made me sorry I didn't know Robert better, but enjoyed the week he was last in Seattle. I can only imagine what it must have been like to try and sort through his magpie collections. It was kind of you to give of your time. I wish I could help.

xo;
Les

Playbills

[golaski.livejournal.com]

Robert Aickman, as you may know, donated 600 playbills to a British museum. He was a life-long (from childhood), avid theater-goer. And, of course, you've heard that poets are starting to sell their papers to libraries... John Taggart was able to retire early by doing this, Allen Ginsberg broke records when he sold his. Susan Sontag sold her papers too. Perhaps there is a museum of sinister doll heads aching to get its hands on your collection...

Oddly enough, your labor reminded me of Jack Womack's story "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," which you chose for a YBF&H (#4?).