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New Year Celebrations in Lowell and Beyond

New Year Celebrations in Lowell and Beyond – (PIP #90)

By Louise Peloquin

Happy, healthy, peaceful, fruitful new year to everyone everywhere!

L’Etoile – Front page, January 2, 1926

The New Year 1926 was received with open arms and grand, popular revelry – Dances, parties, dinners, speeches, intimate reunions, evening performances, fun and social entertainment, etc. etc.

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RESTAURANTS AND CLUBS

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     Lowellians celebrated the arrival of the New Year with a great deal of joy and fun. and also with the best possible social order. There were dances, parties, evening performances, dinners, jazz and live entertainment in various restaurants as well as rollicking programs in the city’s social clubs. We bid adieu to the Old Year 1925, which left as gently as possible, and saluted the New Year 1926, so full of promises.

     The police was on guard, ready to prevent all disorder, but remained arms crossed since the New Year arrived with peace and general harmony in Lowell.

     IN RESTAURANTS

     Many local restaurants organized extraordinary celebrations for the occasion, for example the Parthenon Restaurant on Market Street. There were more parties in Lowell than ever before since the legalization of prohibition.

     At Marie’s on Central Street, at least 250 banqueters frolicked in the middle of red and green Christmas decorations while an orchestra played excellent dance music and special performers gave graceful dance demonstrations. Likewise, at Sun Ho restaurant, the crowd had a good time until the early morning hours, entertained by a local dance orchestra and special artists from Boston.

     Chin Lee’s on Merrimack was equally thronged although there was no dancing.

IN CLUBS

     Club Lafayette had a very elaborate program on New Year’s Eve. A lunch and festivities gathered guests from Manchester, Nashua, Lynn and elsewhere. The event was directed by F. N. Labelle, committee president, assisted by Elphège Phaneuf, Joseph Gagnon, Arthur Lambert, Maurice Brossard, Zépherin A. Normandin and Alphonse Couture, ex-president of the Club.

     As usual, the Club des Citoyens-Américains (1) did things on a grand scale. At the stroke of midnight, at least 400 people rang in the New Year. A lunch and refreshments were served. Dancing and a grand march began at midnight. On behalf of club members and friends, Henri Achin extended best wishes for a happy New Year. Parkway Lunch served the buffet and the Simplex orchestra, directed by Roméo Couture, performed dance music. One of the evening’s special attractions was the dance demonstration by Bébé Rita Gauthier accompanied by her brother Ernest Gauthier.

     Onésime Tremblay, president; Timothée Roy, treasurer; Arthur Grenier, secretary; Oswald Turcotte; Eugène Beaulieu; Vidal Manseau; Trefflé Bordeleau and Alfred Harnois, president of the Club, were in charge of the entire event.

     At the Social Club de Centralville, at least 200 people attended the dance and enjoyed the evening’s entertainment. A grand march took place at midnight. The soirée was coordinated by Edouard Lafontaine, president; Albert St. George; Arthur Boisvert; George Martin and Arthur Duclos. Mr. Lafontaine directed the dance. Mr. St. George was in charge of the musical program and Mr. Boisvert managed the general entertainment.

     At least 100 people attended the Cercle Paroissiale Notre-Dame de Lourdes (2) party in the East Pine Street room. President Olive Bergeron inaugurated the festivities with a charming speech and took the opportunity to speak about the success of the Cercle’s recruitment campaign. Since October 12th, the campaign reached its goal of enrolling 50 new members. The New Year’s Eve celebration was organized by John. B. Savard, president; Wilfred Fortier, treasurer; Wilfred Labonne; Ernest Lambert and William Dunn.

     On New Year’s Eve, the North End Athletic and Social Club held its first annual fête for ladies. More than 100 members and their friends attended. President Ralph Porter began by welcoming everyone. Then, quite an elaborate program honored the Club members’ organizational accomplishments. Among the evening’s entertainers were André Frechette, George Desrosiers, Alfred Germain, Spiridion Lippé and Edward Farrell. An excellent trio, formed by violinist Hervé Mireault, pianist Edward Farrell and banjo player Georges Perron, was also on the program. President Edouard Dupont, Léo Ducharme, Wilfrid St.-Hilaire, Georges Bernier, Spiridion Lippé and Alfred Germain were in charge of the fête.

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Here are a couple of New Year escapades beyond Lowell.

L’Etoile – Front page, January 9, 1926

12-BELOW-ZERO SEA BATHING

     Biddeford, Me., 9 – In order to win a $2 bet, yesterday morning, Fletcher’s Neck Coast Guard member Wendall C. Urquhart undressed, swam 130 feet from the shore and remained in the icy ocean water for 20 minutes in 12-below-zero temperatures.

     “Nice day for a swim,” observed Coast Guard member Noyes Crowley while he rubbed his ears when meeting his comrade Urquhart. “Of course!” Responded Urquhart without flinching. A friendly discussion ensued and they won $2.

     “Once again this year, it is the best day for a swim,” declared Urquhart while pocketing his $2. He added that the water was hardly colder than it is during the summer.

     (Certain Lowellians who have already bathed off of the Maine coast during the summer say that the water can hardly be colder in winter than it is in summer – unless one is transformed into ice!.) 

L’Etoile – Front page, January 9, 1926

TO MAKE THE BLOOD CIRCULATE

     Miss IRENE HESENIUS, 17, of Winthrop, Mass., who broke a record last summer swimming 10 miles all the way to the Boston Light House, resolved to swim once a day in 1926. In order to honor her vow, she armed herself with an axe on New year’s Day and went to Orient Heights Yacht Club in East Boston where she chopped a hole for a dive into the icy water.

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L’Etoile – Front page, January 9. 1926

Parade of Masks to ring in the New Year in Philadelphia

     Here is one of the scenes which surprised joyous New Year’s Eve revellers in Philadelphia. These strangely-clad people were all disguised for the annual parade of masks, a New Year’s celebration.

(3)

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1. American Citizens’ Club.
2. The Notre-Dame de Lourdes Parish Social Circle.
3. Translations by Louise Peloquin.

Swedish writer delivers an epic autobiographical novel by Marjorie Arons-Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Two weeks ago, I had knee replacement surgery, so my posting will be limited through the rest of the month. Here’s a great big book to hold you over in the interim. Meanwhile, happy holidays – yes, all of them…..Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, etc. See you in 2026!

The Sisters, by Swedish writer Jonas Hassen Khemiri, now living in Brooklyn, is his first book in English. It is a 638-page master class in structuring a novel. It’s also a dual family saga, the first family featuring very different sisters (Ina, Evelyn and Anastasia) and their unconventional Tunisia-born mother, married to a  Swedish father, who, we learn, has died of cancer. The other family comprises a “normal” Swedish mother and a Tunisian father, who has abandoned his family to return to Tunisia, leaving behind three sons, the oldest named Jonas Khemiri. Yes, this fiction is informed by the author’s own life.

Both families are living in Sweden but have roots in Tunisia, so it’s also an immigrant story. The focus shifts back and forth between the two different families. The reader learns to differentiate the two because one is told in the first person by Jonas, and the other family’s stories are in the third person, with the perspective shifting among the three Mikkola sisters, Ina, 24,  Evelyn, 21 and Anastasia, 19.

The structure of the novel is stunning. It has 150 chapters, longer in the beginning, shorter toward the end. The chapters are aggregated in separate sections or books. The first book covers the year 2000; the next six chapters cover ever-shortening chunks of time, the last covering one minute in the year 2035.  Don’t bother memorizing this. Just know that the author wants to convey the passage of time being slower at the beginning and speeding up as one gets older. In the process, the reader is sucked into the narrative, gathering more and more information and figuring out the mystery of how these two families are linked.

The Mikkola sisters’ mother seems to be bipolar (never specified), and is frenetic, disorganized and unstable.  She has moved her daughters from one place to another, earning her living in sometimes questionable ways and also by selling handwoven carpets. Daughter Ina is super-organized, methodical and responsible. It is she who brings up her sisters, often to the point of being over-protective and controlling.

As the reader is drawn in, it becomes clear that Jonas, the primary character in the Khemiri family, a fictional proxy for the author, who is also part Swedish and part Tunisian. The Khemiri mother is more traditional, holding the family together despite the absence of the Tunisia-born father, who disappears and reappears only to be fault-finding and judgmental toward his elder son.

Turns out, there are connections between Jonas and the Mikkola sisters and hints of a past relationship between Jonas’s father and the Mikkola sisters’ mother. Cue the mystery music. Will the reader ever figure out the threads of this woven tapestry of life?

The thread of the story is a curse on the Mikkola family that extends beyond the mother and sisters. The themes involve sibling relationships, absentee parents, abusive parents, adolescent insecurity, search for identity, obsession, depression, immigrant struggles and finding one’s way in the world.

This book may not be for everyone. The Sisters can be a challenge. As an old English major, I was intrigued and lured on by the gradual revelations of these intriguing characters, with growing admiration of what a brilliant achievement this novel is. It is really quite remarkable.

Lowell Politics: December 28, 2025

There was no Lowell City Council meeting this week due to Christmas, however, today we’ll look back to the December 16, 2025, and the departing remarks of Councilors Paul Ratha Yem, Wayne Jenness, and Corey Belanger.

Here is what each of them had to say. I’ve slightly edited the transcript for clarity and readability.

Paul Ratha Yem ran unsuccessfully for city council in 2015 and 2017 under the old, all at large system. He ran again in 2021 in the first year of the new hybrid part district, part at large council. That year, he won the District 7 seat. He was reelected in 2023, but this year (2025) lost to Sidney Liang.

Councilor Paul Ratha Yem: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Over the last four years, it has been the honor of my life to serve as the city councilor for district 7 and the vice mayor of our city. I leave with gratitude and humbleness.

Many of you know that I came to America as a young man with no parents, no siblings. So, all my councilor colleagues are my siblings. It’s a family of eleven. We will have disagreements, however, each one of us on the council has one ambition. It to make Lowell the best place to live, to raise a family and to start the business.

Each one of us has a vital role. We are parts of one body. Just like with a human body, the eyes cannot say to the hands that I have no need for you and the head can say to the feet that I have no need for you. All of us come together to serve one body. If one member suffers, all of us together suffer. If one member is honored, then all rejoice together.

I’m so very proud to have you working together with me even though we disagree. We have   strengthened our city, the Acre particularly and District 7. We expanded affordable housing. We also supported veterans. We promoted economic opportunities. We lifted Lowell onto the national and global stage through the Front Runner City program. These achievements belong to all of us.

I say to my colleagues, thank you for your love and support. Thank you to the residents of District 7 and the city of Lowell who trusted me and elected me to serve in the past four years. Your honesty, your candidness, even some of your complaints, helped me to be a better counselor and to understand the needs of our city and our district.

To the staff, the city  staff, Manager Golden, his team, and all the rest of the city officials, your dedication, professionalism, and your work is the backbone of our city. I can’t thank you enough for what you do day in and day out. You may never get the thanks you deserve but know that your hard work is appreciated by everyone including myself and my family.

While my time ends in this seat tonight, my commitment to Lowell never ever will end. I leave with no regrets, only gratitude, pride and hope for the city’s future. May God bless you and your family. May God bless our city. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.

The first campaign for Wayne Jenness was in 2021 when he ran for and won the District 4 seat. He was reelected in 2023 but lost this year (2025) to Sean McDonough.

Councilor Wayne Jenness: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’d like to start with just some quick thank you’s. First, I want to say thank you to my wife, Kerry. In my first campaign speech, I forgot to thank her, and I want to make sure I didn’t do that with my last council speech. I don’t think anyone can appreciate how much work and stress it is for the family of people who serve. Kerry has done a lot so that I could be here, and I just really appreciate that.

Also, I want to say thank you to my co-workers and my boss at my day job who’ve given me the time to step away from that role to serve the city. There’s a lot of stuff that happens through the day, whether it’s a quick phone call or a Zoom meeting or something, and being able to have that flexibility in my day job to get things done for the city, I can’t express how much that means to me. U

I also want to thank all the council colleagues that I’ve had the pleasure of serving with.  Everyone in the room tonight and councilors Drinkwater and Leahy who also spent time in this room with me. I also want to thank all my colleagues on the NMCOG council and staff. Serving on NMCOG for this past year or so has been a great experience. I’ve learned a lot in that role and really appreciated the time there. So, thanks to the mayor for that appointment. I really appreciate it.

I’d like to thank the city administrations I’ve had the pleasure of working with, both manager Golden, your administration, as well as Manager Donoghue and all the staff who are too numerous to name. I don’t want to start naming them because I will forget somebody and I will feel terrible. I would like to specifically mention Clerk Geary and Auditor Oakes who are of course council-reporting employees. I really appreciate all the work you guys have put in making these a successful four years. So, thank you.

I want to thank my neighbors, friends, city residents, businesses, all the nonprofit and educational partners in the city as well neighborhood groups and of course the voters who put their trust in me to serve two terms on this council.

Although I am disappointed to be leaving, I have no regrets. I’m proud of the accomplishments large and small that we’ve been able to realize over the four last four years as a council and as a city. I tell everyone that politics is a team sport. You can’t really get anything done on your own, and although all eleven of us seldom fully agree on how to get somewhere, we’ve all done what we can to improve the city and make it a better place. And you know, I’m proud of the work that we’ve done there. I believe the city and its residents are in a much better spot now than it was when I joined the council four years ago. That’s a testament to all the hard work put in by the city, the staff, this council, all our  all our boards and commissions and the work that they put in as well.

Furthermore, I know that everyone will continue to push forward the city and accomplish more things. Although I won’t be in this seat, I’ll be watching and  you know, I’m around and I will be continuing to pitch in and do what I can to help. I’ve truly enjoyed working on behalf of the residents of Lowell, and I fully have every intention of finding ways to continue to give back and contribute to the city and its residents.

Thank you for making these last four years the best job I’ve ever had. Thank you.

Corey Belanger ran unsuccessfully for the city council in 2011 but was elected in 2013 and reelected in 2015. However, Belanger lost in 2017, largely due to his support for moving Lowell High School to Cawley Stadium. He sought unsuccessfully to return to the city council in 2019, and again in 2023, when he ran for one of the three at large council seats under the new system. However, when District 3 councilor John Leahy resigned from the council early in the 2024-25 term, the other councilors appointed Belanger to serve the balance of his term. Belanger then ran for the District 3 seat in his own right in this year’s city election but was unsuccessful.

Councilor Corey Belanger: Thank you, Mayor Rourke. I want to commend my outgoing colleagues. That was nicely done, gentlemen. Very proud of you.

The time has come to say goodbye, but it’s without remorse, for sure. It has been a great experience working with all of you. And as Councilor Jenness alluded to, one councilor can’t move this city forward, but eleven can. And more times than not, we’re often in lock step. You know, there may be differences along the way, but we almost always got there on a lot of things.

You’re all hardworking, dedicated. It’s been a pleasure serving with you. It really has. Uh to Mr. Manager, you and your administration are among the best. I am in awe of how hard you all work, how committed you are, how responsive you are, and how you’re result-based you are at the same time, because we have to go back to our constituents at the end of the day. And you made us all look good.

But elections are a funny animal and you never know how it’s going to work out. But certainly, I want to thank you all for everything and I’m cheering for all of you for sure. I know the city’s in very good hands and the residents at home need to know how committed you all are. Yes, you’re all professionals. Thank you for your commitment and service.

But in just under 24 months, I’m very proud of the work that’s got done. As I travel through my district going forward, I’m going to see tangible results, improvements in sidewalks and parks and in all kinds of places. That was through the work of the district itself. It was an honor to serve such an engaged district, a very involved district. It kept me very busy and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Absolutely. But in the end, we all got results. When everybody, residents, councilors, administration, all row in the same direction, that’s how you get results because I like results at the end of the day as well.

So, it’s been a great experience. And it’s just the timing, of how I got here and what’s going on, what’s in the pipeline here with the Front Runner City, the LINC Project. You know, we have the potential here to be one of the best mid midsize cities in America. That’s no exaggeration. And I know with the leadership of all of you, including Councilors-elect Juran and Councilor-elect McDonough is here tonight, that we will get there. But it’s going to be a lot of hard work and I like to think I played a little role in getting some of the stuff moved forward. I’m part of a team. That’s how I always looked at this.

So best of luck to all of you. I’m cheering for you. Uh, there’ll be civilian roles to play and you can bet I’ll be in the front lines of that. So, thank you again. Good luck everybody. Thank you very much.

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When it comes to the volume of motions each councilor has filed during the year, I’ve long maintained that quantity does not equal quality. In fact, too many motions can cause top city administrators to spend so much time drafting motion responses that they are kept from their primary task of managing the city workforce. Still, each year I’ve reported the number of motions each councilor has filed at the midyear point and again at the end of the year, for whatever that information may be worth.

Continuing this practice, I’ve listed the number of motions each councilor filed for the second half of 2025 and then for the entire year. My totals come from looking at each weekly agenda and counting the number of motions each councilor made that week. If two or more councilors made a joint motion, it counted as one motion for each of the moving councilors. Also, the number of council meetings are not divided equally between the two halves of the year. Because the second half of the year includes the every-other-week summer schedule and big holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are fewer meetings from July to December than there are from January to June. For instance, in the first half of 2025 there were 23 council meetings while in the second half of the year there were just 15.

Number of motions filed by councilors, 2nd half of 2025:

Corey Belanger – 20
Sokhary Chau – 1
John Descoteaux – 11
Erik Gitschier – 39
Wayne Jenness – 23
Rita Mercier – 9
Vesna Nuon – 9
Corey Robinson – 34
Daniel Rourke – 5
Kim Scott – 23
Paul Ratha Yem – 11

Number of motions filed by councils, all of 2025:

Corey Belanger – 41
Sokhary Chau – 4
John Descoteaux – 16
Erik Gitschier – 89
Wayne Jenness – 37
Rita Mercier – 16
Vesna Nuon – 37
Corey Robinson – 91
Daniel Rourke – 12
Kim Scott – 42
Paul Ratha Yem – 25

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The Lowell Sun recently reported that UMass Lowell will soon issue a request for proposals for the construction of a hotel and a skating rink attached to the Tsongas Center. The ice rink will provide a practice venue for teams like the UMass Lowell Riverhawks that use the Tsongas for their home games. Now, practices are held on the main rink which prevents it from being used for other purposes such as trade shows and conferences. Similarly, the hotel would include conference rooms that would permit breakout sessions and ancillary gatherings for groups using the arena for things other than sporting events and concerts. The hotel would also provide lodging for those visiting the arena for any reason.

This undertaking falls within the LINC project (Lowell Innovation Network Corridor) which strives to supplement the university with related businesses and housing, all in the same place. Having an active entertainment site like the Tsongas and nearby LeLacheur Park will make living on the LINC campus more desirable.

The original plan for the Tsongas Arena contained an adjacent practice rink for the same reasons, however, that was eliminated when the actual cost to construct the arena exceeded the money that had been appropriated, so the project had to be scaled back to fit within the budget. Also cut were luxury boxes and other amenities within the arena. The Sun story suggests that some of the omitted amenities could be added to the building now as part of this project.  (See “UMass Lowell plans hotel, ice rink at Tsongas Center” by Melanie Gilbert, December 18, 2025.)

This is good news for the city of Lowell for several reasons. More events at the arena should put more paying customers in the adjacent city parking garage. Lowell should have a downtown hotel, but in a place and with a business plan that gives it a chance to succeed financially. Finally, this project might jump-start the Riverwalk, a beautiful pedestrian walkway running along the riverbank from Bridge Street to Merrimack Street that opened in 1996. However, from the time it opened, the Riverwalk never reached its potential, which is a shame since most cities in America would embrace the opportunity to have such a prime waterfront walkway. Regrettably in Lowell, the Riverwalk has been mostly ignored by city government. Perhaps this project will help change that.

Morning Song

Morning Song

By Jim Provencher

Waking to predawn summer stillness,
A pleasant coolness, the town asleep in river fog.
A few night-perch birdcalls try the darkness,
throat-clearing chortles, signalling, I’m here.
Adrift in the night, whirring and whispering
an overture of small sibilant cries.

This tentative faltering reminds me
I have less to say but something to sing.
Nothing better than to plumb the silence,
sound the darkness, join fellow first singers,
shy twittering gabbers whose prompt churring
cheers me to know in singing not to sing.
So I launch a high whining trill, chiming
dawn songs begun in darkness and delight.