Book of Sketches - Jack Kerouac [32]
money, buy or invest, &
then save to pay off your
debt: leaves U.S. with
record savings & record
debts at same time.
Consumer credit is one
arm of machine reaching
out to help other, but
under conditions of debt.
In other words, Debt
(Neal’s big hassle) is the
form, financially, the Machine
creates to enslave the
individual to It — for
instance, Sinatra owes taxes,
back taxes, & is “forbidden”
to go to Europe, also
Dick Haymes — The
collusion of Debt, the
“Tax,” & “Insurance”
are tying people closer
& closer to the great
Wheel Rack —
Don’t accept “Loan”
or “Arm” of Machine —
it is a deceptive enslavement
— simple souls mistrust
offers of loan for no
idle reason —
The traffic problem is
merely that cars by the
millions enslave us to
new city systems requiring
hours of driving to & from
needs, on “congested” arteries,
naturally — where once
you’d-a walked — These
are all conditions pointing
to the imminent cancerous
death of America, the
Final Cog in the Western
Civ. Machine — the
supreme end-result of
early Gothic Phallic forms
is the skyscraper & the
oil drill & powered
compressor & pistons of
great engines — the Machine
copulates, men aren’t
allowed to any more —
The flesh gets numb,
but the soul doesn’t.
N’s feeling for “Marylou” in
that pix — her sexual
pinched pretty face — he
doesnt realize about flesh
is numb — till she’d die,
I say — Candlelight in
a beat room
The rat of hunger
eats at your belly,
then dies &’s left
to bloat there —
WATSONVILLE GRAYMORN,
a barbershop near park
is doing big business at 9:45
AM — gray overcast, raw,
cool — The park grass
clip’t to the sward — a
thin grayhaired fastwalking
lady in low heels hustling
towards Main St. of 5&10’s
(Woolworths), “City Drug
Store,” Ladies Shoes,
Stoesser 335 Building,
with Physician X Ray
Doctor windows above, &
“Roberts” Just Nice Things
(Store) — In the barber
shop a Brierly-like barber
in neat glasses & white frock
lowers little boy from
littleboy chair — Name
of shop is “Virg’s” —
with an Anson Weeks
band ad in glittering window
& a few bottles of
hair lotion — Little boy
was with mother who
trots him pushing him
along across park in her
big ass gray slacks, bandana
& crepesoles —
little boy has wool cap
over new hair cut —
Trucks of supermarkets
& Oakland Towel Co.
& just pickups without
lettering grumble around
park — The palms
hang dull in bleak
green bug-specked Void
— California on a
gray day is like being
in a disagreeable room —
Here is lineup around
barbershop: “Sodas
Shakes Sundaes” in old
fashioned Watsonville
sidewalk roof corner but
not Western; solid &
Victorian, once respectably
whitewashed, with bas
relief drape regalcords
& a “Surgeon” goldpaint
flecking off a round
baywindow — “Athletic
Supplies” — Sharp’s Sporting
Goods next in same bldg.
— fancy fishingpoles
in rich interior basketball
gloom — then “Ben’s
Shoe Service” not cluttered
but prosperous & shiny like
he sold shoes — then
the old arched wood
doorway of old bldg. with
bas relief sprigs — & a
doctor plate — Then
Steve’s Cocktail Bar,
shuttered with French
blinds, black tile base
of wall, cocktail glass
drawn under “Steve’s”
— Then City Club
restaurant, same shuttered,
but open door, red “Beer”
neon — (bells ring now)
— (for Ten) —
Then barbershop; then
“Smoke House,” an
ordinary cigar newspaper
store — “Pajaro Valley
Hardware” sandwiches
in old Colonial Hotel
bottom of 2 story of
which is Sporting Goods
— Then rich creamy
concrete streamlined
bank on corner, with
official Main St. globetype
(5 globes) streetlamp
announcing bleak official
clock district officer
corner of bus stops
traffic & stainglass
doors
In Pavia, 18 miles south
of Milan, the ashes of
St. Augustine, the great
monastery Certosa di
Pavia, junction of the
Ticino & the Po, fortifications
of Old Ticinum,
thousand yr. old university,
manufacture of pipe
organs, makers of wine,
silk, oil, and cheese.
Must go to Pavia