Sam's & my trip to Lowell, hometown of Jack Kerouac, was one of the last Massachusetts-exploring trips we took together before she moved to Kentucky. In addition to containing the grave of the most famous beat, Lowell was one of the first important factory/mill towns in New England during the Industrial Revolution. It now consists of a lot of run down factories and falling apart buildings and a not really great crime rate, at the same time that you can cross to another street and find an ambundance of cute coffee shops and restaurants and lots of promotion for the arts. I found myself liking it a lot even in the somewhat drab sections, because it reminded me a lot of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which I partly consider my "hometown" - another city that both tries to play up its historical, industrial past while trying to distance itself from it at the same time. I feel this is probably the case in so many towns in America. But anyway - it was a satisfying last chapter (although the last last chapter was really a trip to Salem we took a few days later) to a book of many Massachusetts outings with Sam, and I'll miss our explorations of this fine Commonwealth. It's been good times.

august 2006

14 pictures; 35mm
(color & c-41 b&w)