The Cassidys
Like many on my blog, this is a highly speculative post. Both photos were taken from Chelmsford Street in south Lowell, but not in the part of Lowell that is actually called ‘South Lowell’. In the book Maggie Cassidy the Cassidys live at 31, Massachusetts Street, but that street doesn’t actually exist (at least not … Continue reading
Arriving in Lowell
Some of the first sights I encountered getting off the train at Lowell. Of course freight trains and Kerouac are mainly associated with his time in California, but I had to take a few photos of these freights anyway. That old industrial building opposite the rather unexciting present day Lowell train station (in Kerouac’s time … Continue reading
The 11:10 am to Lowell
North Station, Boston, MA Waiting for the train to take me to Lowell, Jack Kerouac’s birth town, and I was suitably excited.
Submarine Signal Building
West End, Boston, MA. I am not sure which function exactly this building served in its time, but given the name ‘Submarine Signal Building’ I had to think about Kerouac going to Greenland on the SS Dorchester in 1942 and his fear of being hit by a Torpedo fired from a German submarine (as described … Continue reading
So we sailed south from Nova Scotia and to my surprise, instead of hitting Boston Harbor…
… we suddenly woke up one morning and saw, in the fog, the good old Statue Of Liberty (Vanity Of Dulouz, p. 141 Paladin 1990 edition) Boston Harbor Statue Of Liberty from Staten Island Ferry Here’s another photo from streets in the vicinity of Boston Harbor, I can picture Kerouac strolling along here quite nicely
… when I lay in the grass of Boston Common…
… thinking of death…’ (Visions Of Cody p.132 Flamingo Modern Classic edition)
Wazee and Wynkoop Streets
Kerouac wrote about the area in which these photos were taken and its characters he saw there, such as the ‘the beggar without legs who clattered tragically on his rollerboard on Wazee Street…’. The Wazee Supper Club boasts in this first photos naturally boasts with Kerouac’s name on its website (www.wazeesupperclub.com) too. Wynkoop Street ‘… … Continue reading
Sometimes Way out of town, say miles out on East Colfax, Cody, waiting for a bus, or a ride …
The above quote is taken from page 109 of ‘Visions Of Cody’ (Flamingo Modern Classic Edition), but East Colfax Avenue is mentioned quite a few times throughout the book. I had a little walk on East Colfax Avenue and found it not especially nice, but I can see the appeal to Kerouac with its myriad … Continue reading
Pretty Mink Secretaries of 17th Street
‘… outside his windows, which are gleaming red in the mad Denver afternoon, young assistants of state senators and pretty mink secretaries of 17th Street are rushing by…’ (Visions Of Cody, p. 113 Flamingo Modern Classic edition). The area around Larimer Street probably looked much different in Kerouac’s days, I didn’t see any of the … Continue reading
Colorado State Capitol
Kerouac mentions the State Capitol in both ‘Windblown World’ (‘Last night I saw bats flapping about the Golden Dome of the State Capitol’) and ‘Visions Of Cody’, where he calls it ‘… the big dumb Capitol building’ (I suppose he doesn’t take that literally, as he calls the undoubtedly beloved downtown streets of Denver ‘dumb’ … Continue reading
Retracing Jack Kerouac 