Monday, April 6, 2015

Beats Easter

Greenwich Village, 1958.

Yesterday our whole family watched the Easter Parade. It was weird, because we really don’t do things like that. But Nell-mom wanted to sketch some of the people, and then Gary Daddy-o said he would come, and before I knew it all of us were standing there on Fifth Avenue looking at ladies in their dress-up hats, a.k.a. Easter bonnets.

Nell-mom brought her sketch pad, so of course everyone was looking at her and some people wanted her to draw them and other people didn’t. Gary Daddy-o started talking about the parade as a tool of the Man to keep people occupied so they wouldn’t know they were being oppressed as workers and slaves.

Nell-mom looked up from her sketching and said Kerouac was religious, and in fact he’s Catholic. Gary Daddy-o asked if Kerouac was going to attend the Easter Parade, which was in fact about clothes and money. Ray said he wished he had his saxophone because he’d like to play it and make some money.

Then Gary Daddy-o said this parade started because the churches wanted to throw their weight around and lord it over the rest of us and censor and oppress us. Nell-mom didn’t answer him at that point, but she did say “Shush!”

 I saw a man selling hot dogs and asked if I could have one. Gary Daddy-o looked at Nell-mom again and said “See?” but she ignored him completely. Gary Daddy-o turned his pocket inside out to show me he didn’t have any money. Luckily Ray was hungry AND he had money so he bought a hot dog and we shared it.

The whole thing made me think a little more about Jack Kerouac and wonder if he was celebrating Easter and if so, how, and did he think about the whole beatitude thing, and Beats, and what would that mean to him, exactly.

By the time I finished my hot dog the Parade was just starting to get crowded and people walked by in the most outrageous outfits. 

I think for Nell-mom, anyway... it was a really good day.

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