Jack Kerouac Was A Hero To Most But He Never Meant IT (That’s Capital “I,” Capital “T”) To Me

And the horrible truth about Jack Kerouac is that “On The Road” is probably way overrated anyway:

Go to the places in Queens that Jack Kerouac once frequented — from the home on Cross Bay Boulevard where he lived for six years to the bar he patronized across the street to another house in Richmond Hill — and you will find widespread apathy that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the publishing of “On The Road,” the novel that spawned the Beat Generation.

And there appears to be no celebration in the borough to mark the milestone.

Joanne King, a spokeswoman for the Queens Library, said the library had no events listed.

In fact, finding some evidence that Kerouac once had roots in Queens — the starting point of his cross-country journey documented in “On The Road” — is hard to come by.

A small, red plaque hangs discreetly on the bricks of his former home at 133-01 Cross Bay Blvd. in Ozone Park.

“The poet and novelist lived here from 1943 to 1949,” it reads. “During those years, he wrote his first novel, The Town And The City (1950) and planned On The Road (1957), his seminal novel that would define the Beat Generation.”

. . .

Talk to patrons at Glen Patrick’s Pub, formerly McNolte’s Tavern in Kerouac’s day, and they know the Kerouac name and can point to the left corner seat at the bar where he used to sit and drink. They know that Kerouac enjoyed throwing darts but have not read one page of “On The Road.”

“This guy’s a legend or something,” said the bartender, who only wanted to be identified as Chick-E. “For whatever reason, I don’t know. He’s like a folk hero, this guy. I can’t believe it.”

The bar’s customers were equally clueless.

“This “On the Road” — is it a good book?,” asked John Riepe. “There’s not one person in this place that’s read the book.”

“All we know is from what we read on that thing,” he said, pointing to a 1990 Newsday article about Kerouac framed on the bar’s back wall.

“Everybody that comes in here reads that,” Chick-E said. “Everyone, strangers off the street and they come take pictures.”

Kerouac spent six years at the Cross Bay Boulevard home before moving to a house at 94-21 134th St. in Richmond Hill.

A resident of the Richmond Hill house said the fact that Kerouac once lived there “don’t mean nothing” to him.