Lowell,
Massachusetts,
United States
Tuesday, July 8, 1980
This was the day I would be going to Jack Kerouac's hometown. I had read just about everything he published, in fact I owned about everthing plus several biographies, so I was looking forward to seeing the places firsthand that he had written about. I don't know if On the Road was the first travel book I had read and I don't know whether it was the best but it was exciting-completely different from my travels. So after a stop in Fitchburg for gas I headed on to Lowell where I parked downtown on Bridge Street near the bridge at 10:18 in the morning and got out to walk the streets that Jack had walked. I stopped by the school and saw where he had use to meet his girlfriend under the clock(same place new clock). After moving the van to a public lot by Kearny Square I went to the library where he use to hang out and looked at the Kerouc folder. I got caught in the rain and went to Dunkin Donuts coffee $.37. Later I went looking for the Edson Cemetary where Jack was buried but it was closed when I got there. So I went to Nicky's, his wifes cousins bar, where he used to hang out late in life. I was in for a surprise. I went in and sat at the bar among a bunch of middle age to older men watching a baseball game on tv over the bar and had a couple beers. The first thing I knew was a young lady came out with a 45 record in her hand, put it on the record player and started taking her clothes off as she danced around a miniscule stage. She finsihed and there was polite clapping, then a few minutes later another young lady would come out and do the same thing. It was strange to think this was the low key working class bar Jack spent time the last years of his life as I watched a skinny girl with her arms spread apart dancing in a circle around the edge of the small stage to "I Want You to Want Me" and grabbing her little pile of clothes and 45 and thanking the quiet crowd of older men watching the game more than the young lady. I found a place to park on Riverside Boulevard and parked for the night. my art website
http://home.earthlink.net/~greenvanartusa/index.html
