random thoughts – Day 1,299 – (Saturday) – more Jack

Kerouac Park

Another day, another outdoor walk, making four consecutive days of downtown walks. It’s almost like I’m on vacation or live downtown or something. It was another group walking tour, which is definitely more fun than walking around alone or on the treadmill at the gym. 

This morning’s walk was another Jack Kerouac weekend festival walk, departing from the Kerouac Commemorative Park. The park features tablets etched with passages from various Kerouac works, and was slated to host a ceremony this morning, but the forecast for rain pushed it to Sunday. 

It started out with a lot of talking, because the site of the Commemorative Park is near the sites of another of young Jack’s favorite movie theaters, his father’s other print shop location, and not far from various places he lived and a couple blocks from where he went to high school. 

Knowing the history and literary significance of various sites in town adds an interesting facet to things. Lowell was a hopping place in the 1930s with many movie theaters and an entertainment complex for dancing and shows that sounded really cool and unfortunately burned down. Other sites have been lost to progress. 

The historic clock in
Maggie Cassidy.

We learned about Jack's athletic skill in track, baseball, and football, his brief career stint as a sports reporter for a newspaper, and how it's a shame he isn't in the Lowell High Athletic Hall of Fame. We visited the clock mounted on the high school that is mentioned in Maggie Cassidy, and learned about the two real life people Jack knew and who are the basis for the character in the novel.

And there was recognition of the drinking, and some of the bad behavior that resulted from it. There multiple facets to Jack – the brilliant student who skipped two grades of school, the accomplished athlete, the prolific, introverted, handsome writer who loved his hometown and constantly referenced in his writing – and the alcoholic. Unfortunately, some people remember him most as Franco-American drunken bum.

There was also a bus tour the began at the same time as the walking tour that was going past various former residences of the Kerouac family and Jack’s birth home and burial site. I wished they hadn’t both been at the same time so I could have done both. Stupid space time continuum and activity packed weekends.

The leaders of the walks have shared amazing amounts of knowledge about Kerouac. The organizers of the festival planned a full weekend of activities with film screenings, lectures, poetry readings, and concerts, most of which I did not attend. Maybe next year.

After the walk, the group continued onward to see a film and I peeled off to go home for some lunch. I thought I might go back downtown for some of the other events, but that didn’t happen. It was raining. There was a nap. I like history and literature, but I also like naps.

Later, there was a trip to Kohl’s to return the amazing silver boots with the heel that was slightly higher than expected. They were really pretty and comfortable for the ten steps I walked in them in the house, but from a practical perspective, well, they weren’t. A different pair of boots with a lower heel that won't cause a knee blowout arrived a couple days ago.

The return was delivered to Kohl’s, so of course there was browsing. An armload of jeans was tried on. Some very practical but overpriced black boots were tried on. Jeans were bought, along with some socks on clearance, and a purse. I now have more jeans than I’ve ever owned at one time. I don’t know why. Sometimes things just happen.