He was born in
Denver,
Colorado on February 8, 1926.
Was dubbed "
Speed Limit" by
Ken Kesey and was the driver of his
psychedelic magic bus.
"Cassady is revved up like they've never see him before, with his shirt off, a straw version of a
cowboy hat on his head, bouncing up and down on
the driver's seat, shifting gears -
doubledy-clutch, doubledy-clutch, blamming on the steering wheel and the gearshift box, rapping over the microphone rigged up by his seat like a manic tour guide, describing every car going by." ~
Tom Wolfe
Some Cassady Quotes:
"Going wrong this curve set up for that unless you got a flat or suspension change even but what I found out was I could throw anything into reverse under ten miles an hour aw gosh good old granny you can allways tell by the fear in your belly how limited y'ar."
"
The secret of the fuse is to
think of the soul and not
the ego. It took the
Chinese years to discover
swallowing tadpoles by the dozens doesn't make for effective contraceptives."
"This Eyetalian --or was it
E? --opened a pack of
Camels upsidedown, impressed even me."
"I swore, for all those Saddiday nights I missed when I was in
San Quentin I'd stay up every
Saturday night for two full years to make up."
(Excerpts from the
movie: "
Neal Cassady In The Backhouse," filmed by
Page Browning at
La Honda, California in
1965.)