My first Montreal apartment: Stephen Lack

   This tale from the legendary Stephen Lack, a painter and sculptor who is perhaps better known for his turn acting in such moves as Montreal Main, Rubber Gun and Scanners. The multi-talented Lack lived on the very street he immortalized in film and was kind enough to offer this memory.--

   My first apartment was on Bagg Ave. with the rich red sign of Moishe's glowing like a blood-filled signature down the street on St Lawrence.
   The rent was about $60 and the apartment was on street level and stretched back about 75 ft, so it was kinda bigger than my bedroom on Circle Rd. I had just got back from Mexico where I studied sculpture and got an MFA after 4 yrs at McGill getting a BA.
   My mother had no patience for my 'schedule' of waking up at noon and making calls to arrange the events of the coming evening... so they encouraged me to move out and get an apartment.
   I can't remember how I found it but my parents cracked up that I was moving around the corner from the monument place where everyone ordered their tombstones. After everyone moving off the Main to Westmount and Snowdon and Cote St Luc; here was the beat side of their children moving back to the immigrant neighbourhood.
   I used the front living room as a painting studio. One of my favourite memories is workng away on a giant piece, about 12 feet long, and turning around after a few hrs to see all the neighbourhood kids lined up at the little metal fence outside the window, watching me paint.
   I had to turn on the hot water heater when I wanted to shower. One time I forgot to turn it off after showering and it was on Halloween.
    I went for a glass of water and steam started to come out of the overheated pipes. I turned off the boiler and opened up all the faucets and steam poured out and gathered into a big cloud below the ceiling. When the kids rang the bell for Halloween treats I opened the door and a mini weather system exploded as the hot air hit the cold of the Halloween night.
    The apartment was the first of the hangout studios I would have with my friends and hoever they dragged with them to visit me and be part of the downtown activities.
   It was 1968, I was going to Ecole des Beaux Arts and trying to figure out what to do next. Then the art students joined the decade and went on strike, I deconstructed the apartment and went to Europe to chill.

Read the entire My First Montreal Apartment series

• Snarchland: Neil Cameron's My First Montreal Apartment
• My First Montreal Apartment: John Allore
• Mike Boone: My first Montreal apartment
• My first Montreal apartment: Jack Ruttan
• Vava Vol - My first Montreal apartment
• My first Montreal apartment: Kate McDonnell
• My first Montreal apartment: John Hood
• My first Montreal apartment: Stephen Lack
• My first Montreal apartment: Taras Grescoe
• My first Montreal apartment: Dennis Trudeau
• My first Montreal apartment: Colin Robertson
• My first apartment - Daniel Richler