Day 1

The Beatmobile rolled into Lowell like it was coming home! The entire drive through Massachusetts people were honking at us as we drove along the highways and through the towns. We even had a State Trooper give us a toot and a wave!

John and I were met by our good friend Steve Edington who, along with his wife Michelle, gave us some home cooked meals and real beds and showers. The next day we met with Mike Wurm and the other great people at the National Park Service in Lowell who had arranged for us to park the Beatmobile right next to Lowell High School where Jack graduated in 1939 and where he used to meet Mary Carney (Maggie Cassidy) under the school clock. Jack’s Underwood typewriter and rucksack and some other personal items are on display year-round in the Mogan Cultural Center which is the red building right next door to where we were parked.

Larry Carradini, the Chairman of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, kicked off the weekend long celebration with an evening full of music and old friends catching up. David Amram invited John up on stage. John has read many times with David over the years but this was the first time they’d ever played music together.

There was a great Beat photo exhibit by Kevin Michaels and a poetry reading at Café Paradiso that was attended by a couple hundred people. Later, Roger Brunelle led his traditional night time tour of Jack’s Lowell that saw seventy-five people traipsing down Phoebe Avenue, Sarah Avenue and Gershom Avenue. We passed by the funeral home that was Jack’s final resting place in 1969 and ended up at 11 PM at the Grotto (replica of the one in Lourdes) that Jack used to walk through in the 1930’s, the picture of which Jack painted so vividly in Doctor Sax.