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We hope you enjoy this Special Holiday Edition with Al Hinkle discussing his days working with Neal for Southern Pacific Railroad (see our Family page)

We are planning a short hiatus for the month of January, but will return in February with news and happenings.

Best of the Season to All - the Cassady Family

Neal Cassady was undeniably the real genius behind the Beat movement.  He was a force of nature.  The inspiration behind Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road, the man Allen Ginsberg dedicated his landmark poem Howl to, the man who motivated and inspired William S. Burroughs, Ken Kesey, the Merry Pranksters, the Grateful Dead…and untold number of others.

Who was this man? To the world, he was an icon of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic movement of the 1960s, the Holy Goof, Cowboy Neal at the wheel of the bus Furthur on the road to Nevereverland,

To us, he was husband, father, and friend.  We are the Cassady family, dedicated to bringing you the real Neal, the Neal we knew.  Neal’s wife Carolyn Cassady and their children; Cathy Cassady Sylvia, Jami Cassady Ratto and John Allen Cassady wanted to bring the world the truth about the man, the myth, the one and only Neal Cassady.

So join us in this odyssey of discovery, learn the truth behind the myth as we memorialize not the legend, but the man, Neal Cassady.

Al Hinkle Watsonville Holiday Report N.C.E. Dec. 2007

We had heard many stories and read many articles and books of how Al got Neal and Jack jobs on the railroad.

Having lived in the area for the past 15 years I knew that the train stations were still there. Jami and I invited Al Hinkle ("Ed Dunkle" in Jack Kerouac’s novel On The Road) and his daughter, Dawn Hinkle Davis, to our home. We left at about 11:00 a.m. and headed to Watsonville to hear Al’s remembrances and find the many places (if they still existed) that we had read and heard about. Stories about where they stayed and what they did in their spare time before they left on a long haul. As we drove down Hwy 1 from our home in Capitola, Al mentioned he hadn’t been to Watsonville in 20 years.

As we entered Watsonville on the far westside it’s all new with shopping centers, malls and typical suburban housing tracks. Al was unusually silent, but when we hit Main Street he started remembering the Church, the old Fox Theater, and the hotel where he occasionally stayed. Al told us that back in the 50's there were hardly any Mexicans in town, mainly Filipinos. He said the Riverside Men’s Club was all Filipino.

What Mexicans there were, were Caballeros (cowboys) usually dressed in Stetson hats, and new cowboy boots. These Caballeros usually stayed 6 months on a work program and then went home.

One thing that we should mention, if you want to know anything about trains, Al is the guy to talk with!

When we got to the old depot we got out and walked along the tracks. Al talked about how the tracks were made and the way the switches were programed. He looked around and almost all of the buildings around the depot were new.

It was now past lunch time and we were hungry. I wanted to find a place where Al and Jack and Neal had eaten, but alas, all closed now. I must say, if you want excellent Mexican food, Watsonville is the place.
After lunch we went to the old Southern Pacific train station on the eastside of town. The original station is still there. The original sign from the 1920's can still be seen (barely). The station is now all electronic. Al showed us where the roundhouse used to be and the little shack that held shovels and other equipment, which is still standing, as is a lone tree, which Al said was there in the 1950's.

Next, we headed over to the "Kent Street Shacks". These were small little houses where the train personnel lived. Many are still there. Some renovated into single wide mobile homes. The small store where Neal, Jack, Al and the other men would go after work and play Pinocle is still there, now a Mexican Market. Al said they sold candy, soda and cigs, but no alcohol. There was a pool table in the back. Sometimes after work they would go to a movie or swim at the Y.

The conductors shared rooms with beds 10 to a room for .50 to .75 cents per night. There was a toilet and shower and they became known as the "Pajaro Dorms’. When Al got in from a trip, he would look on the "blackboard" where the men signed in, see where Neal was sleeping, in the dorms or in the shacks and head over to that room.

Al said there was a wide plank that covered a deep ditch that you had to walk on to get from the station yard to the road. One time a fellow fell off the plank and died.

As we headed out of town we crossed over the Main Street Bridge that separates Pajaro from Watsonville. Al remembered that under that very bridge is where Jack would go after work and bring stew to the hobos. Jack would spend the night with them and enjoy listening to their stories. Al recounted the time he got a letter from Jack telling him "I think I got over my fear of the wheels". Al said Jack was afraid to jump off the train because he felt he would get caught up in them. But Al said you had to learn how to get off the train in the right way, so your momentum would naturally make your body fall away from the wheels.

To this day, Jami says whenever she hears a train’s whistle, she can’t help but think about her father.......

Thanks, Al, for a wonderful day and sharing your stories with us.

What was it that attracted Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady to each other?

1) Sport:

From a child, Neal was fascinated by every sport and sportsman. He did all he could do develop his own skills as he ran to and from school, while he fed his mind on every sport and sportsman of the day. He dreamed of joining the football team at Notre Dame. Whatever he did, he had to be the best. He met Kerouac, a football hero, also interested in most sports. Jack was always astounded at Neal's photographic memory that could come up with every record of every sportsman past and present from baseball to auto racing.

2) Intellect and education:

Neal, having been raised in the slums of Denver amongst the world's lost men, he determined to make more of himself, to become somebody, to be worthy and respected. His genius mind absorbed every book he could find, whether literature, philosophy or science. Jack had had a formal education which Neal envied, but intellectually he was more than a match for Jack, and they enjoyed long discussions on every subject, Jack amazed at Neal's knowledge.

3) Music:

Both men enjoyed music of all kinds--classical, country, jazz, bop, ethnic, and their tastes grew together as they changed.

4) Physique:

Neal's energy was always noted by all. He was muscular but wirey, light on his feet and swift. Jack, on the other hand was clumsy, muscle-bound and terribly self-conscious. He admired Neal's ability to deal with anyone on their level, his skill in seducing women and charming anyone he met, his zest for life and hunger for experience. Jack hoped to learn some of these skills from Neal while he shared that zest for life and hunger. A deep and everlasting love developed between them both but there was never a question of homosexuality.

Alas, they lost personal touch in their last years when both were destroyed by drugs and alcohol. Both of their minds had been ingrained with the Catholic dogma of being guilty miserable sinners and unworthy, and this they never overcame, no matter how much they mentally believed otherwise and adopted other faiths.

All the best, Carolyn

Latest News

1. On November 3, 2007 at The Fillmore, John Allen will be joining David Amram and a slew of talented people like Kris Kristofferson with Taj Mahal, Peter Coyote, San Francisco Taiko Dojo, Charlie Hill, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, and Kitaro for the Longest Walk II.

Copyright 2007 © Neal Cassady Estate, All rights Reserved