Our friend Ania Nowakowska (Australia) sent this newspaper
clipping, taken from McGill Reporter (January 10, 2002), also
available on-line at http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/34/08/kaleidoscope/
(if you want to see photos and read more about Leonard's
childhood surroundings go to http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/montreal.html )
Where Leonard was little
We've all had brushes with him. Leonard Cohen, man of the Main, thoughtful Lothario turned Mount Baldy monk. It's hard to live in Montreal and not know someone who met someone who...
Well, imagine living in his boyhood home, where a sweaty-palmed young Len dreamt of girls and, maybe, fame.
Registrar Robin Geller and her husband bought that very house in 1996 and moved in the next spring. They had been looking for property in the Westmount area for some time, and were delighted when, Geller says, "an acquaintance said he knew of a house that would be up for sale privately." And, oh, by the way, Leonard Cohen owns it.
Cohen co-owned the house with his sister. "Neither had lived in it full-time, for some time." The home was sold with about two-thirds of its contents.
Not only did Geller gain a new dining room set but also the family's bedroom furniture. "My oldest son is sleeping in Leonard Cohen's bed."
Do Cohenheads show up at her door, asking to be in Lenny's room of teenage angst? Do swooning women peer in her windows, hoping to glimpse the table at which their god munched bagels?
"Not a ton, for which we have been grateful," Geller says. But there were a few eager groups in 2000 when McGill hosted a conference on Cohen. People lurked on their front lawn, and Geller's husband invited them in. "They came in and walked around and were very very happy."
The Cohens also left behind memorabilia. Tennis racquet, baseball glove, a guitar, even a platinum album.
"The guitar's pretty cool, I have to say." Geller thinks this was his first. She also likes the sporting stuff. "It's fun to think he was once a kid living in that house, doing kid-like things."
in a good way though