RETREAT TO GOODISVILLE 2012
Tour by Lou Boxer and Duane Swierczynski
Arriving graveside at Roosevelt Memorial Park. Disembarking to pay our respects to David Goodis on the anniversary of his death. January 7, 1967.
If there was a noir God at work, he/she/it certainly had the last laugh on us. It was a balmy, sunny day. Irony? Maybe. What should have been a sub-artic wasteland was anything but that. The Retreat to Goodisville 2012 Tour had arrived.
Andy Kevorkian and Newby Ely lead the Goodis Heads to the Goodis family gravesite.
Walking to the gravesite
At the Goodis grave, the loyal gather to pay their respect to the writer and his family. On the far left, by the tree is the grave of Herbert Goodis, in the middle is the grave of David Goodis and on the right is the grave of Mollie and William Goodis.
The Un-Holy Goodis Trinity - Wong, Gallagher and Boxer. Be it graveside, barside or NoirCon, these three carry the flag for Goodis through thick and thin.
RETREAT FROM OBLIVION, Dutton, 1939, Pages 152-153
Goodis's resting place for all eternity.
John Grant, Newby Ely and Andy Kevorkian look on as respects are paid.
The symbolism of placing stones on tombstones
The practice of burying the dead with flowers is almost as old as humanity. Even in prehistoric caves, some burial grounds have been found with evidence that flowers were used in interment. But Jewish authorities have often objected to bringing flowers to the grave. There are scattered Talmudic mentions of spices and twigs used in burial (Berachot 43a, Betzah 6a). Yet the prevailing view was that bringing flowers smacks of a pagan custom.
That is why, today, one rarely sees flowers on the graves in traditional Jewish cemeteries. Instead there are stones, small and large, piled without pattern on the grave, as though a community were being haphazardly built. Walking in the military cemetery of Jerusalem, for example, one can see heaps of stones on the graves of fallen soldiers (fallen writers), like small fortresses.
Jeffrey Davis reads graveside
Ed Pettit, Philly Poe Guy, reads graveside
2. On the bus: Welcome.
Opening remarks. Watch selection of The
Burglar on the way to the cemetery. Roosevelt Memorial Park, 2701 Old
Lincoln Highway, Trevose, PA (N40° 7.6344', W074° 58.5717')
At the Cemetery:
Readings, tribute at the Goodis family plot.
Section B-3, Lot 234, Grave 3
If there was a noir God at work, he/she/it certainly had the last laugh on us. It was a balmy, sunny day. Irony? Maybe. What should have been a sub-artic wasteland was anything but that. The Retreat to Goodisville 2012 Tour had arrived.
Walking to the gravesite
At the Goodis grave, the loyal gather to pay their respect to the writer and his family. On the far left, by the tree is the grave of Herbert Goodis, in the middle is the grave of David Goodis and on the right is the grave of Mollie and William Goodis.
The Un-Holy Goodis Trinity - Wong, Gallagher and Boxer. Be it graveside, barside or NoirCon, these three carry the flag for Goodis through thick and thin.
Lou Boxer at graveside reading Who the hell is David Goodis?
Newby Ely signs with incredible emotion with his translator from David Goodis's Retreat From Oblivion:
While the lights flickered and blazed
people were weeping,
laughing, screaming and sighing, loving and hating. In a hundred
years these people would be gone and the lights would be gone. But
there would be new lights and there would be new people. The same
story would go on. It had been going on for hundreds of thousands of
years.
It was the story told of people in cities, on farms, in
hills and in battlefields. They were good, they were bad, they were
good again, and before they knew it they had been or what they had
done. They might have gone through a lifetime without telling a lie,
or they might have existed for twenty-three years and then gone on a
killing spree and murdered five women and been electrocuted. It was
all over, this show, and someone else was just beginning it some place
else.
Everybody passed through it, kings and beggars, rats and
elephants. When it was all over there was the body still, with the
eyes open or the eye closed. That didn't matter either. The eyes did
not see anything. It was really all over and nothing could be done
about it......
There had always been a lot of talk about this Heaven and
Hell business. Well, the wise guys could laugh all they wanted to but
but it wasn't a bad idea. The chances were that it was just that, a
lot of talk. But it wasn't a bad idea.
laughing, screaming and sighing, loving and hating. In a hundred
years these people would be gone and the lights would be gone. But
there would be new lights and there would be new people. The same
story would go on. It had been going on for hundreds of thousands of
years.
It was the story told of people in cities, on farms, in
hills and in battlefields. They were good, they were bad, they were
good again, and before they knew it they had been or what they had
done. They might have gone through a lifetime without telling a lie,
or they might have existed for twenty-three years and then gone on a
killing spree and murdered five women and been electrocuted. It was
all over, this show, and someone else was just beginning it some place
else.
Everybody passed through it, kings and beggars, rats and
elephants. When it was all over there was the body still, with the
eyes open or the eye closed. That didn't matter either. The eyes did
not see anything. It was really all over and nothing could be done
about it......
There had always been a lot of talk about this Heaven and
Hell business. Well, the wise guys could laugh all they wanted to but
but it wasn't a bad idea. The chances were that it was just that, a
lot of talk. But it wasn't a bad idea.
RETREAT FROM OBLIVION, Dutton, 1939, Pages 152-153
The practice of burying the dead with flowers is almost as old as humanity. Even in prehistoric caves, some burial grounds have been found with evidence that flowers were used in interment. But Jewish authorities have often objected to bringing flowers to the grave. There are scattered Talmudic mentions of spices and twigs used in burial (Berachot 43a, Betzah 6a). Yet the prevailing view was that bringing flowers smacks of a pagan custom.
For many of us, stones conjure a harsh image. It does not seem the appropriate memorial for one who has died.
But stones have a special significance in Judaism. In the Bible, an altar -- the holy place where one offers to God -- is no more than a pile of stones. When Abraham, following God's instructions, binds his son Isaac for sacrifice, he does this at a stone, called Even Hashtiyah, the "foundation stone of the world." And the most sacred shrine in Judaism, after all, is a pile of stones -- the wall of the second Temple.
So stones have special meaning. But why place stones on the grave? The explanations vary, from the superstitious to the poignant. There is a belief, with roots in the Talmud, that souls continue to dwell for a while in the graves in which they are placed. In the Eastern European folk imagination, these souls -- even those that were benign in life -- can take on a certain terror in death. The stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer and the plays of the Yiddish theatre, rich in the mythology of Eastern European Jewry, are filled with these types of hauntings: souls who returned, for whatever reason, to the world of the living.
The practice of leaving stones atop a grave can be explained as a response to these beliefs. More than a simple marker of one's visit, stones on the grave are the means by which the living help souls remain where they belong -- in the grave where they do no haunting.
Another beautiful answer to the stones on graves question takes its cue from the inscription on many gravestones: the five-letter Hebrew abbreviation taf, nun, tsadi, bet, hey, which stands for "teheye nishmato tsrurah b'tsror haChayyim." This phrase is usually translated as "May his soul be bound up in the bounds of eternal life" -- a phrase wishing for eternal life for the departed.
When we place stones on the grave, and inscribe the motto above on the stone, we are asking God to keep the departed's soul in God's sling. Among all the souls whom God has to watch over, we wish to add the name, the "pebble" of the soul of our departed.
One thing both of these explanations have in common is the sense of solidity that stones give. Flowers are a good metaphor for life. Life withers; it fades like a flower. As Isaiah says "All flesh is grass, and all its beauty like the flower of the field; grass withers and flowers fade" (Isaiah 40:6,7). For that reason, flowers are an apt symbol of passing.
But memory is supposed to be lasting. While flowers may be a good metaphor for the brevity of life, stones seem better suited to the permanence of memory. Stones do not die.
There is something suiting the antiquity and solidity of Judaism in the symbol of a stone. In moments when we are reminded of the fragility of life, Judaism reminds us that there is permanence amid the pain. While other things fade, stones and souls endure. And David Goodis will endure!
Ed Pettit, Philly Poe Guy, reads graveside
What a difference a year makes! Flashback to January 2011. Lou Boxer and Andy Kevorkian remove the snow from the Goodis family graves. Snow and frigid temperatures forced the loyal Goodis-heads to gather in the nearby mausoleum in order to avoid frost-bite. Missing was the trust, Retreat To Goodisville 2012 bus. 2011's tour was a caravan of cars criss-crossing the frozen wasteland of Goodisville. Horribly alone, each car faught the elements with courage.
The few, the brave, the very COLD!
circa 2011
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