Jack Kerouac

Lowell was the home of Jack Kerouac, author of On The Road which is deemed one of the most important American novels.

A century ago, Lowell, MA was a model textile city.  Today, it is a struggling town with a population of recent immigrants. Kerouac's grave is tiny and I passed it on my bicycle a couple of times before I noticed the bottles and the Marlboros.

These pictures were taken in the fall of 2009 and I soon went back a second time after a few of us had dinner at a 99 restaurant. I said something about the grave and one of the guys grew up in Lowell got really excited, three of us drove to the cemetery and the Lowell native had no trouble finding the small tombstone in the dark. Somehow a can of beer materialized an we each took a swig and left the rest for Kerouac. My friend turned around and said something memorable to Jack as we walked back to our car. Turned out I was the one only that had read any of Kerouac's books.