Carolyn By The Sea

Carolyn Cassady and i. Plymouth 1987



Carolyn By The Sea.
In the mid 1980's there was a pestilence upon the land.It started at Thatcher and spread outwards.There were 4,000,000 people unemployed and one of them was me.I couldn't get a job anywhere.In the end,rather than be on the dole i joined a voluntary organisation called Community Service Volunteers and was sent to work at the night shelter in Taunton looking after tramps,druggies,schizophrenics and mainly alcoholics.They floated towards Taunton because you could get a gallon of farmhouse cider for about £1.80 in those days.I got food, accomodation and £13 a week pocket money.After a while they offered me a permanent job as a care assistant for the princely salary of £4,400 per annum.
I only worked at night-time so in the daytime i had lots of time on my hands for my hobby of book collecting.I would scour the secondhand bookshops, charity shops, junkshops,jumble sales,car boot sales looking for books that i could resell at a profit.The best find i ever made was a first edition of Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.It was falling apart and all spotty but i got £50 for it.I later found out that if it had been restored it was worth £900.My specialist interest was the Beat Generation.If i came across an old Giant Pan paperback copy of On The Road it was like hitting paydirt.I also snapped up anything of hippy interest because i used to do a little bookstall at festivals and i found it was a nice little earner.My beat stuff i used to sell through through a fanzine called The Kerouac Connection run by a bloke called Dave Moore from Bristol.I was 'Subterranean Books' and i used to send my lists of books world wide.
Anyway,to get back to my story, through Daves magazine i heard that a Beat conference was to be held at Plymouth Arts Centre.Carolyn Cassady was the guest of honour,Slim Gaillard was to be there and Gerald Nicosia who wrote the definitive Kerouac Biography 'Memory Babe'.I decided to go, and set off full of excitment.When i got to Plymouth i found a B and B for the weekend and explored Plymouth.I had a walk on Plymouth Ho where Sir Francis Drake finished his game of bowls before defeating the Spanish Armada and then i stood on the very steps that The Mayflower pilgrims walked down to board their ship and i wondered what would the world be like if that ship had sank on its perilous journey.After that i went to the conference.There were lots of bearded pseudo- intellectual types there who i didn't really like but there was a good documentary filum shown called 'What Happened To Kerouac?' in which Gregory Corso was hilarious.
On the Saturday there were lots of seminars and lectures which i found really boring and i never said anything because i couldn't make out what they were banging on about.In the afternoon there was a particularly boring poetry reading by some minor minor poet.I couldn't take no more because i was dying for a drink and a smoke so i went outside and sat in the sun in the yard and pulled a can of Colt 45 out of me bag and sat there happily drinking and smoking my head off.After a few minutes a nice friendly looking American lady came out in the yard.I recognised her immediately, it was Carolyn! The poetry had become too much for her as well.She sat on the steps next to me and started chatting.She had no airs or graces,really demure and she even had a couple of swigs of my beer.Carolyn was Camille in On The Road, Estelle in other Kerouac books and had also written 'Heartbeat' which was made into a film starring Sissy Spacek and also wrote 'Off The Road' an excellent book which i recommend all about her life with Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg etc.What i really liked about her was that she took an interest in me,asking about where i lived,what i did for a living etc.She was in her mid 60's then but still very attractive,in her younger days she must have been stunning,no wonder Neal Cassady fell in love with her.During an interval a few more people came into the yard and a Scottish bloke called James Morton took a photo of Carolyn and i.
In the evening there was a concert with Slim Gaillard top of the bill.He was great and after his show he went around all the tables,chatting up all the girls even though he must have been in his 70's then.Poor old Slim died in 1991 but he was quite a character.The concert was a great end to a really good day.
On Sunday morning i was in the foyer mooching through the books at the bookstall when a voice behind said
"Hello again,"
I turned around and it was Carolyn.I said hello and bought a biography of Neal Cassady by a bloke called Gregory Stevenson and asked Carolyn to sign it.She sat down on a sofa and signed it but she didn't like a drawing of Neal in the book so she changed it to look more like Neal as she remembered him.I later sold that book on my list.What an eejit i am!
Anyway, Carolyn is still alive and well as far as i know and living in America.I hope she is still enjoying herself whatever she is doing.I havent met many famous people in my life but i dont think there can be any nicer than Carolyn Cassady.
THE END.
Pat.(the great rememberer)

Post Script.
Dave Moore who i mentioned in this story contacted me today after discovering my blog page, i hadn't heard from him for 15 years.Isn't the internet amazing!Dave has just published Neal Cassadys Collected Letters 1944-1967. Penguin Hardback £9.99.