Elegiac Birthdays American

100 years of Jack Kerouac

Saturday marks the centenary of Jack Kerouac’s birth, March 12, 1922. I never forget it, or miss it, because it’s also my birthday. And now, because Ti-Jean (as he was known to loved ones) is hitting his hundred, I’ve thought about him and me, and just how well I fit into a generation for whom his impact was both removed and diluted.

I’ve felt the ebb ti…