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Conjecture and Hearse, Eh?
We first encountered this sassy hearse on Brunswick in early July. Tom62 spotted it parked in front of the ROM around the same time. More recently, a Spanish tourist found it in front of him in traffic on King Street. And then this past Tuesday we again saw it, parked on Kensington Avenue.
The funeral home of Gateman, Goodbury, and Graves was Herman Munster’s employer, and although there is a new Munsters DVD set coming out this Tuesday, the obscurity of the reference and the fact that the vehicle was around in July makes it unlikely to be related. Not to mention the fact that although The Munsters did have signature vehicles, a hearse was not among them.
Another possibility: the Six Feet Under book, Better Living Through Death, reproduces the contract that Nathaniel made Claire sign in order to acquire his old hearse. She could paint it any colour she wanted (it ended up lime green), on the condition that if it was not painted black, she couldn’t park it in the front of their funeral home. Perhaps this is a similar deal, but with no backyard parking available, its owner is left to wander the streets of Toronto?
As for what our Castilian friend made of this, reader and commenter Maria helpfully translated for us: “This is the last photo that I took in Canada. It’s the death symbol with the sickle and below it says ‘Rock Roll & Reap.’ It means something like ‘Reap and Rock & Roll.’ The best thing was that it was in the back door of a funeral vehicle. That sure is seeing death with a sense of humour. It’s like if just after burying you the priest said ‘Okay, the dead to the hole, the living to eat, let’s go to the pub!!'”
All photos by Jonathan Goldsbie.
