to Tribute to King LeeBelieve it or not, LaRetta was actually
punctual for once!! We left for the funeral home a little after 2:00 in the
afternoon. From then on, it was definitely a memorable day.
We arrived around 2:30 and only a few cars were there, so we drove around a
little while. By the time we got back, all the parking spaces were taken, so I
had to practice my parallel parking abilities. Went in, signed the guestbook,
and that's when LaRetta said, "Jon's here. You be civil". What?! Sometimes she
thinks she's my mom. Anyway, I was civil and Jon & I shook hands in a casual
greeting. Went in to see the King at rest, and it was a bit disturbing. Not the
fact that it's a lifeless body in a casket, but that had to be THE worst makeup
job I've ever seen. Yes, he was eaten up by cancer, and makeup jobs on the body
are generally good. The only thing that went through my mind was, "Did they run
out of flesh tone makeup or what?" King Lee was actually gray. It literally
looked like someone took some of the haunted house grey makeup and put it on his
face and hands. Fucking horrible. I realize he's going to be cremated, but they
could have made at least a little presentable for the funeral. I was a little
irked, as was Jon. After visiting with friend's, family, and former "Beasties",
we took our seats. While waiting for Lee's niece to start the service, they
played "What If God Were One Of Us" and "Dust In The Wind" quietly over the
sound system. Lee's niece, Christine, started out by giving a brief biography of
Lee's life. This was followed by Beast Matt reading a poem he wrote when he
first heard of Lee's condition just a few weeks ago. It was titled, "King Of All
Kings". Next Greg commented on how no matter the various grievances that
happened at the haunted house, Lee was always the middleman. Because of this
quality, they nicknamed him "Switzerland". Lastly, LaRetta did an impromptu
speech about how special he was to everyone who worked at the haunted house. She
was the Queen of the Beast, and Lee was the King of the Beast. A funny sidenote,
as she was returning to her seat, she tripped over the microphone cord and
caused a nice hummmmmmmmmmmmm on the speaker. The final song was "What A
Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. All songs were picked by Lee himself. Had
one last look at the King as we exited outside. Damn that makeup job.
Some of us Beasties were going to have a get together at Wyandotte Lake, which
was one of Lee's favorite spots. I drove home, let Bob outside, changed clothes
and grabbed the cooler. LaRetta didn't want to drive in the rush hour traffic,
so I drove her home to change into something a bit more relaxing. Stopped by the
liquor store and picked up a case of Sam Adams, a case of Coke and some ice.
Brian couldn't make the funeral due to work, so I called him to see if he wanted
to come to our little get together in honor of Lee. He said he'd like to go, so
I dropped by and picked him up. I had general directions, but once we got to the
immediate area, we had a hell of a time trying to find the shelterhouse. Finally
after driving for what seemed forever to find #5, we turned back around and
tried the other fork in the road near the front gate that goes on the other side
of the lake. Once again, no sign of # 5 in sight, so I pulled over to check out
the map posted on the side of the road. Wouldn't you know it, if I would have
went around just ONE MORE CURVE the first time, we would've already been there.
DOAH!! We basically drove all around the lake for no apparent reason. I guess we
got the scenic tour. Found the shelterhouse and Brian and I carried the cooler
down to the shelterhouse. The brats, beans, steak, and hotdogs were ready to go
on the grill, we were just waiting for the fire to get spread around a little
bit more. Saw a lot of people I knew, but saw a few I didn't know. Those who I
knew were Matt, TJ, Greg, Sue & Ally, Shawn (Sue's brother), Todd, Spunky and
his wife plus some others that I kind of casually knew. The other people I
didn't know were those who worked with Lee at the haunted house after '97 (when
most of the regulars walked out). Little did I know it, but my name has lived
on. People there have heard of "Wolfie", and when I introduced myself, they were
like "I've heard stories about you". I just hope they were good. Obviously they
were complimentary, because my name was always brought up in reference to having
newbies play my old position as in "Growl like Wolfie used to". Of course, a
newbie didn't have any idea who I was, but those that did basically said,
"Forget it. No one growls better than Wolfie". Pardon me while I gloat about how
fucking good I was. Gloat Gloat Gloat Gloat. Ok, I'm done :) Some things never
change though. We all broke up into our little cliques. The kung fu people hung
out together. The pot heads split off and started lighting up. LaRetta tried to
talk to everybody. The post-97 Beasts hung out together. I hung out with Brian,
LaRetta, and yes....even Jon. About 11:45, Ranger Rick comes by and tells us we
need to start cleaning up, as the park closes at midnight. We all got our stuff,
policed the area and congregated in the parking lot discussing a late-night
cemetery gathering...an old tradition Lee liked to do, as well as the rest of us
regular Beasties. Brian had to go to work in the morning, so he had to get home.
Now comes the fun part....I had a good Sam Adams buzz going on, so I gave Brian
the keys. What the fuck was I thinking?!?! I passed out in the back seat soon
after leaving the park, and woke up in my driveway with LaRetta driving. Wow. I
just needed a little Wolfie-nap and I would've been fine, but after Brian drove
home, LaRetta hopped in the driver's seat and drove back to my house, where Jon
was waiting. It's not everyday that I'm in the backseat of my car (please
refrain from your dirty minded comments...hehe).
We were still going to meet up with some folks at Mt Washington Cemetery, so we
took off and parked near the entrance off of Blue Ridge. After about 15 minutes,
the others showed up. The others were two whole people, Sue and Todd. We were
expecting a few more but oh well. We entered between the large boulders and
headed down the cemetery until we hit the road that led to our old meeting spot,
the Edson grave. It's a huge monument at the end of a circle drive inside the
circle itself. The monument is one big white stone bench wrapped around in a
semicircle with a huge 15 foot cross. Also in the middle of the circle is the
rest of the Edson family's tombstones. We didn't get much further down the road,
when I looked back and saw a spotlight shining down through the cemetery. Fuck!
Hoping the cop would go away, we got to our first site that Lee liked. It was a
small mausoleum. We all had a moment of silence and lit a candle in the ground.
Suddenly, the spotlight comes back and so does what looks like another car.
Double Fuck!! They were obviously running our plates, so after much bitching we
headed back up to the cars. It was the Jackson Country Police Department. They
wanted to see some ID, and wanted to know what we were doing in a graveyard at
2:00 in the morning. We explained the circumstances and the cops seemed
satisfied. Either that or they didn't think LaRetta and Sue were the type to go
exhuming corpses and hold rituals. Now that I think about it, we did have
candles and I was wearing my Dark Funeral hooded sweatshirt. Obviously we meant
no harm, but usually people who hang out in cemeteries at night are vampire
wannabes, think they're gother than goth, or Ren-Fest rejects who think they
cool. I've been seeing police up close and personal waaay to much in the past
month or so.
We then all went our separate ways. Definitely a memorable occasion that King
Lee would've gotten a kick out of.
Another memorable occasion today: Jon and I were actually civil to each other.
After much mediating from LaRetta and Sue, we may be back on the road to
patching up our former friendship. I don't know. We'll see how this turns out.
Oh yeah, at the funeral service, I found out that King Lee played the guitar. I
also found out that he has a special place set aside to have his ashes spread.
In the past, Lee had his dogs cremated and spread their ashes in this same
place, and that's where he wished to be at the end of his days also.
May 16, 2002
3:26 AM
to Tribute to King Lee