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My Life With Lowell’s Favorite Good Humor Man, Mister Softee By Pierre V. Comtois He became a summer tradition. When the sun shone down from blue, cloudless skies and heated up the city sidewalks such that walking barefoot was impossible without burning your feet, there was that familiar jingle that…
Read More »All Over America By David Daniel Was it the recent summer Olympics that put it in my mind? Or, somehow, the TV footage of the chaotic evacuation of Afghanistan? I’m not sure, but . . . does anyone remember the great high-jumping mania that once gripped the nation? All over…
Read More »On January 7, 2014, we posted a story by Mehmed Ali and Beth Brassel about Moody Gardens, a Lowell bar of the 1950s and 60s located at 294 Moody Street. The story (which can be read in full here) tells how the bar struggled until one night in 1957 when…
Read More »Back from its extended summer break, Trasna is please to present the latest publication from poet Maeve O’Sullivan, Wasp on the Prayer Flag. This is Maeve’s fifth collection with Alba Publishing. It chronicles the years from 2018-2021 in haiku and senryu. Rooted in Ireland and its varied landscapes, with…
Read More »The dreaded red “X” recently was posted on the Smith Baker Center. That signals to first responders that the building is unsafe to enter but it also is an indicator that it’s unlikely the building will remain standing for much longer. Given that development, here is some background on the…
Read More »Boarding School Blues: Chapter 20 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 20: Orderliness That Friday evening in study hall, Sister Roger had special instructions. “A week from today, you will be home eating leftover turkey sandwiches and telling tales of your first weeks here – the friends you have made, the academics,…
Read More »In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, here are some items on those events that have appeared on this website: Notes from September 11, 2001 By Richard Howe (on Sept 11, 2011) Within days of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, I sat down with a pencil…
Read More »In honor of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, here’s a poem (with some Lowell connections) by Billy Collins that we originally posted ten years ago on Sept 11, 2011. The Names by Billy Collins Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night. A soft rain stole…
Read More »There has been some controversy about the number and location of polling places for the upcoming city election. Here’s a look at the polling places used by the city 76 years ago in the 1955 city election. The places are organized by ward with the number preceding the name of…
Read More »In recognition of Labor Day, here is the lead editorial from the September 7, 1992 edition of The New York Times – A Labor Day piece about the then-recently opened Boott Cotton Mills Museum. The Boott Cotton Mills Museum is open daily from 10am until 5pm, especially on Labor Day. …
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