jack's house late october '09

[jimboloco]

[Doreen Peri]

who's jack?

[mtmynd]

let me guess... kerouac?

[jimboloco]

yup
he's the only beat poet famous Jack from around here. I started talking with a young man working on his car across the street. He is from Cuba, taking English as a second language at an adult education center. I told him "bienvenidos a America!" I said un escritor muy famoso vivio en esa casa. He said he had never seen anyone over there, but the yard is maintained. You can see the bushes need trimming, but I like it. Adds to the ghostly spiritual extroadinary aura around the place.
I have a couple of more shots too will get them. The old TV antennae and some trees that are kind of magical in their shapes.and loook there is a mysterious light in the garage where his old chevy sits and waits for him. mercy the pine tree in his backyard goes way up, a tree that he contemplated and wanted to grow.along with plain old Florita trees, not the sculptured palm tree look, real Florida homey style. I have been driving by here more often lately. My old Quaker friends live across the street to the west in a house surrounded by woods. Yay!

[Doreen Peri]

Oh OK. From your post, I had no idea that it would be the house of a famous beat poet from around there. Thought at first you'd been to visit Jack (stilltrucking) but I don't think they have palm trees in the area of texas where our Jack lives... haha... maybe I'm wrong. So anyway, that's why I asked.

Cecil is smarter than me. But we all knew that.

Thanks for sharing.

[jimboloco]

ain't no body is smarter than you are friend
forgetabou tit

oh well either i yam sexist or ya can take a joke
or both but not too sexixt
i just happen to think that men outa become more gentlemanly
and women out to become more dame-like strong empowered ladies, what you are
yet still humble and meek as well
just don't forget to brag on yourself once in a while.

ps i sure hope cecil is more smarter that me
or he will have some problems along the way.
as fer me, i was so stupid that i keep on getting smarter nowadays that i yam a lately blooming idiot. yay!

san antonio has palm trees yes.
jack tiles house is waitiing to be discovered.
along with his pet armadillo Rose..

[Artguy]

So who owns the house now? Does it open it's doors to interested folks? Any signs of activity like Jim Morrison's grave in Paris? Sad that it would just be an abandoned old bungalow. Did Jack's mere and wife continue to live in it after St. Jack's passing?...If you peer into his window would one see a desk with scribbled notes as he may of left it? So many questions....

[jimboloco]

i contacted the author who did both a kerouac bio and also a history of the vietnam veterans movement home to war
he had come down to clearwater for a legal hearing as he contests the ownership should belong to the kerouac's not the family of his ex-wife, not sure exactly. but it stayed with her family i believe, and they won't release anything about it. I was tempted to enter, bless me, from the back yard, but the screen porch was locked and my better sense took me away.
Now I won't even venture into the back yard, as the red "no tresspassing" sign was posted after my initial forays several years ago.


the windows are curtained
i did take a peek severasl years ago from the exterior thru the screen into the doorway into the back and saw a lamp unlit and a generally darkened unlit interior, and of course the checy thru the back window into the garage. i would love to get a shot of that, but right now that is not in the cards.

gerald nicosia
lives in california

he would be happy to answer questions i believe
but at the time, several years ago, he got sshit on by VVAW
as being inaccurate etc
he asked for me do write a rebuttal which i did but the answer was way too detailed for me to respond to and way too virulent
all i could do was offer him my goodwill/ it is a tremendous effort and the book where i found a photo with myself and other VVAW vets standing in the street 1972
i liked the guy
he seemed sensitive and willing to talk.
i emailed him with this post and asked for a reply to your question art mon, ja!

i did see a photo of someone holding a scroll in front of jack's house, but as far as I know, it remains a restful place where the mystery lingers on, a flashback 40 years ago in perpetual repose.
i have heard that the house has a hefty price tag, over a milion dollars is what they want i believe.
my Quaker friend who saw Jack get tossed out of a bar here has also passed away. Maybe I can ask the quaker lady who lives across the street. Her elderly husband, who knew Kerouac as a neighbor is quite possibly gone as well.

it's a little mystery that i get to pass by now and again
and remember my friend peter Nam antiwar vet whose mother sent me his entire kerouac collection after he passed away at age 50 like 12 years ago same age as me he was my best friend

check your cholesterol and lipids man and do some tai chi

[mtmynd]

thx for the pix, jimbo... more than i've ever had the opportunity to see. maybe some more shots when you get a chance, sort of a collage of sorts 'where Jack lived his final years'... enough words, I guess, have been written about him, but these pics... new to me! you know, a pic is worth a 1,000 words... and we can write our own stories in these pics.

[mb]

post a pic and a real story bubbles out of it...

-mb

[Arcadia]

loved the palms trees and also the pine tree there, beautiful! that house...lots of photos around the same topic, no?