Lowell Celebrates Kerouac 2023 -- a brief visit and report

Crystal and I met our great friend Richard Marsh and his lovely wife, Kim, at Jack Kerouac's grave in Edson Cemetery (my namesake) on Thursday Oct. 5 as our own kickoff to Lowell Celebrates Kerouac 2023. It was not an official event of the celebration. We have a routine wherein we drink a shot of whiskey (or two) at the grave and video a reading (or two) from Kerouac's work. Below is the evidence.

Crystal ready to pour some Basil Hayden bourbon

Shots lined up

Some will say it is sacrilegious to drink a toast to Jack Kerouac, especially at his grave, since alcohol abuse likely killed him. My response: go pour your judgy self a shot of whiskey and chill out. We do it out of respect.

I did my usual reading at the grave, this time from my favorite Kerouac novel, The Dharma Bums. Specifically, the passage where Kerouac describes Ray Smith meeting Japhy Ryder (Gary Snyder). Click HERE to watch the video, In it you can see evidence of our other tradition, which is to leave a copy of my book on the grave. Hopefully someone will take it and read it or pass it along to someone who will. That's my great friend Richard beside me. Please pardon my voice -- it's the Parkinson's.

From the grave we reconvened at The Worthen House, a long-time main site of the festival. 

Our camper, Japhy, parked in The Worthen parking lot

The front of The Worthen

We had lunch at The Worthen and then checked into the La Quinta in Andover. There's no place left to stay overnight in Lowell since the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center stopped taking hotel guests. After a brief respite we went back to The Worthen for opening ceremonies and then Richard and I took the Dr. Sax walking tour led by the extremely knowledgeable Lowell docent, Bill Walsh. The ladies stayed at The Worthen.

Boarded up and closed St. Jean Baptiste Church where Kerouac's funeral was held
 and he was an altar boy at one time. You can see Bill Walsh's head to the left of 
the guy with the blue backpack.

Along the tour we stopped near the site of the now-destroyed Moody Street Bridge, the one on which Jack describes, in Dr. Sax, seeing a man, William F. Mulgrave, carrying a watermelon drop dead. From the new bridge we threw in a piece of watermelon in Jack's honor and in memory of Mr. Mulgrave. Click HERE for video.

Near the site of the now-gone Moody Street Bridge.
Bill Walsh is in center with notebook and Richard Marsh is on his right.

We stopped at the closed Archambault Funeral Home, site of Jack's wake.

Archambault Funeral Home

The last stop on the tour was the famous Grotto and Stations of the Cross. 

  

The Grotto

Richard and I ditched the tour group (it was getting near time for the next event) and made our way back to The Worthen, where we listened to poetry and music until heading back to the hotel. We ate breakfast the next morning at the Club Diner. Excellent.

My breakfast (actually Kim's -- mine was with hash instead of ham, an Irish Benedict)

Richard and Kim did a few more things in Lowell. We said our goodbyes and then Crystal and I headed to Walden Pond -- where we'd never been. Afterwards we headed home to Maine.

Replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin

Infographic about Thoreau's cabin

All in all, a wonderful trip albeit short. We made it home to Maine safe and sound with another set of memories from Jack's hometown, Lowell, Massachusetts. The festival goes on for a couple more days -- - click HERE for the schedule.