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“July 4, 2025” by Steve Edington

July 4, 2025

By Steve Edington

It’s a beautiful day here in my part of New England, coming as it does after several days of very high heat and humidity. I’ll do some yard work later today and then take a walk. My walk will be through a wooded area not far from my New Hampshire home with a path that goes alongside the Merrimack River. As I go along, I’ll be recalling some words from the opening paragraph of Jack Kerouac’s first novel, The Town and the City, about how “The Merrimack River, broad and placid, flows down from the New Hampshire hills.”

There is a sad irony for me in today’s beauty as it is found in the part of America where I live. It stands in contrast to the ugliness that is in much of our country’s socio-political life right now. This is what makes my observance of today’s 2025 Independence Day—July the Fourth—such a subdued one.

Yesterday the United States Congress passed a bill that will curtail, and in some cases end. the health care provisions for millions of Americans—many of whom actually voted for the President who will sign it—while granting even larger tax breaks for those who already have more money than they could possibly spend in two dozen lifetimes.

Then we have had the creation of a secret police force, with the acronym of ICE, that indiscriminately rounds up immigrants—whatever their legal status may be—for incarceration; their due process notwithstanding. And I use the term “secret police” in the most literal sense since these agents of the US Government do not even show their faces.

The latest chapter in this travesty is the practically overnight construction of what amounts to a concentration camp in the Florida Everglades to help house the rounded-up immigrants, who might (might?) get their due process, but only after their open-ended incarceration. The President has joked about how any who try to escape from this facility could be eaten by alligators—all to the laughter and delight of his millions of minions.

I’ll leave it at that when it comes to all that weighs on my mind on this Independence Day.

Twelve years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which is what today’s celebration is about, the new nation that the document heralded enacted the Constitution of the United States. Its key component was the principle of the Separation of Powers, with three supposedly co-equal areas of governance that would check and balance each other. One of the reasons the authors of the Constitution put this framework in place was their concern about the possibility of a rogue Chief Executive with monarchial aspirations. That concern has now been well recognized in the person of Donald Trump.

What the Framers apparently did not anticipate, however, was the subservience of the Legislative and Judicial branches of government to the Executive. While it is far from unanimous when it comes to their make-up, as they are now constituted the US Congress and the Supreme Court have largely made themselves to be extensions of Trump’s Executive Branch.

The Declaration of Independence was, in good measure, a response to the tyranny of England’s King George the Third as it was seen and experienced by many of the American colonists. The document contains line after line that specifically reiterate his offenses. Now, 249 years after the signing of this Declaration, we have a President who aspires to be the very kind of monarch from whom we declared our independence! And he has just enough—just enough—Congressional legislators and Supreme Court justices to allow him to get away with it.

I’m staying low today when it comes to celebrating July the Fourth. It’s not because I no longer accept the ideals upon which this country was founded—even while knowing all the many ways we’ve fallen short of those ideals. To the contrary, it’s because I still want to believe in those ideals however much they are being violated at the highest levels of the government that is supposed to be upholding them. Instead, this will be my day to recommit myself to doing whatever I can, however modest my efforts may be, in restoring those ideals before they are forever lost.

I closed my last blog here with references to Woody Guthrie and my aforementioned Jack Kerouac. I’ll do the same with this one. I still believe in Jack’s America of “all that raw land, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it.” I still believe in Woody’s “ribbon of highway” with its “endless skyway and golden valleys.” On this Fourth of July of 2025, I know they are still there and still worth standing up and fighting for.

 ****

Steve Edington is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister and the Minister Emeritus of the UU Church of Nashua, New Hampshire. He is a 30 year member, and a past President, of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac. 

In the Minors

IN THE MINORS

Terry Downes

The old coach squinted towards the mound
To watch the youngster there
To see if he might have the stuff
Or just be ordinaire.

It was a dusty afternoon
And hot in late July
A blazing sun above the field
Turned green turf tough and dry.

From plate to outfield warning track
The faithful there could see
Both young and old in uniform
Playing ball with glee.

The rookies play to make their way
To money and to fame;
The vets remain to play each day
For pride and love of game.

The minor leagues are near ignored
The majors get the ink;
But those who truly love the game
So often stop and think:

The past and present of the game
What was and what’s to be
The hopes of players and of fans
Is there most plain to see.

In quiet towns in small ballyards
Far from the cities’ bright
All the future’s on the line –
The minors play tonight!

****

Terry Downes is an attorney and retired District Court Clerk/Magistrate who went on to found and direct the MCC Program on Homeland Security, and long served as an adjunct professor at Suffolk Univ. Law School and UMASS-Lowell. He lives in Lowell with his wife Atty. Annie O’Connor.

This is the second in a series of nine poems about baseball (nine, like in nine innings of a game, or nine players on the field, etc.) which will appear on the first Friday of each month through the baseball season. Here are the previously posted poems in this series:

March – Spring Training

April – Opening Day

May – Early Season

June – Postponed!

The Holidays in 1960s Lowell 

The Holidays in 1960s Lowell

By Leo Racicot

Every year, as Valentine’s Day approached, our teachers would get us excited with mention of a possible party (if we were good) and we set about with our parents buying Valentine cards to handout to our classmates on the day itself. The nuns made us buy a card for each student in the class, so that no one would be left out. In the 1960s, these cards weren’t elaborate ones. Usually flat items that didn’t open like regular greeting cards, they had some quick, cute saying or wish on the front. Parties included soda and candies. I see stores still sell the miniature, colored hearts, also with little sayings on top: BE MINE, XOXOX, SWEET HEART. My favorite candy was also the most fun to eat — candy necklaces and bracelets that you ate your way through, one candy at a time.

Saint Patrick’s Day (March 17th) for Saint Patrick’s school and parish was a big deal. A huge citywide celebration was held downtown at Lowell Memorial Auditorium. We students of the whole school prepared Irish songs for our number in the program. The auditorium, in those days, had a large seating area just above and behind the stage. Students were seated there, dressed in white shirts, green bow ties for the boys, green ribbons for the girls. The whole night was very exciting. When I was a kid, I had adenoid problems and always breathed not through my nose but through my mouth. After the show, my family would say, “We saw you! You did great!”  Puzzled, I asked how they spotted me in among all the other kids and they said, “You were the one with your mouth open the whole time.” The most thrilling act of the night was, for sure, the Irish dancers performing the Irish jig. Hearing them stomp out their clog movements on the wooden auditorium stage sent shivers up everyone’s spine.

Easter time, for parochial school students, meant EasterSeal drives. EasterSeals was a national nonprofit charitable organization. Students were handed out packets of these to sell. Prizes went to the top sellers. I never could sell many and my mother, feeling bad, would try to sell some for me to her friends. Ditto Aunt Marie who’d take and pitch them to her boss and co-workers. Of course, there was always “The Shining Star” who somehow managed to sell eight or nine hundred books of stamps and walk off with the trophy. This reminds me of other stamps-selling drives of that time: Holy Childhood stamps and Christmas seal drives at Christmastime. And have I mentioned the very popular S&H Green Stamps of the 1960s? These were stamps that, when collected, added up to money that the consumer could then redeem for items such as pen-and-pencil sets, household knick-knacks, appliances, that sort of thing. Aunt Marie was very much into it and one of my sister’s and my chores was to sit with Marie at her kitchen table, wetting and pasting the Green stamps into the booklets. It took a lot of stamps to buy a toaster!

Whether you were making your First Holy Communion or not, May was always a special time in Lowell Catholic homes. You always knew or knew of someone making their First Communion, Confirmation or participating in May Altar processions   in honor of The Blessed Mother. It was a season of all-white outfits, white veils, lilacs everywhere in people’s yards and gardens. Something I’ll never forget — my godmother, Theresa Geoffroy, offered, as her gift to me on my First Communion, to pay for my whole outfit — white suit, white tie, white shoes even. My mother and aunt refused to allow her to do this, saying it was too expensive and they’d like to buy it for me themselves. Well, Godmother Geoffroy got so mad, she never spoke to any of us and I never saw her again. I still remember my mother, walking with me up to the photographer, George’s of Lowell, on Textile Avenue, to have my picture taken with Jesus. This left a lasting impression on me, and I was always a very holy child, believing the Church’s teachings completely. I think most families in those days had a son who wanted to become a priest or whom they wished would become one, and I spent hours in my room playing Mass — I’d use a glass covered in a cloth for the chalice, a colorful washcloth for the pall, a piece of cardboard for the paten, flattened out pieces of bread for hosts. I’d throw a sheet over my shoulders for a chasuble, and prayed my way through my junior missalette.  In 1975, after college, I entered Missionhurst Seminary, taking my studies at Catholic University, Washington D.C. Two of the guys I entered with, Hugh Wade and Jack Spainhour, stayed and became lifelong career priests. I decided the priesthood wasn’t for me and stole away, quite suddenly, in the middle of one night.

Every Memorial Day began with Marie taking the family to Saint Joseph’s Cemetery in Chelmsford, to place flowers and a little American flag on Papa’s grave. Papa had served with the horse cavalry in India in World War II. I treasure many photos he took over there, of natives in their native towns. There are a few of Papa riding high atop a jungle elephant. After, we’d head downtown to get a good spot with others to watch the Memorial Day Parade. I can’t find the words to say how much I looked forward all year to parades: the marching, the color guards, the cheerleaders shaking their pom-poms, raising high their batons. And The colors!  Bright orange. Bright yellow. Bright purple. Bright red. The brightness of the day. The ground beneath us shivered and shook from the music vibrations, our hearts shivered and shook along with it. Lowell’s love for putting on parades and citywide displays is now a thing of the long ago. I haven’t seen or heard of one here in decades. Maybe too costly to organize?

Fourth of July carnivals on South Common were a staple of summer celebrations. Our mother would walk us from our house in The Acre all the way up Thorndike Street, along with dozens of other carnival goers walking the same way, bumper-to-bumper traffic to our right. Everybody was heading in the same direction. Independence Day excitement filled the air. Festivities offered something for everyone: best-looking baby contests, pie-eating contests, tug-of-war competitions, antique cars, games and more games. And after, the great fireworks display could be viewed from many vantage points in the city. In years when we didn’t go to the carnival, all we had to do was go out in our yard and look up at the sky.

Next in the holiday calendar came Halloween. The race to find the best costume started in September. When Diane and I were young, Marie, who lived in The Highlands, would drive us around that neighborhood, where the best candy and handouts could be had. Those plastic masks were so suffocating and sweaty (If I close my eyes, I can still smell them) but well worth it once we hit the candy streets. Trick-or-Treating was safe in those days, not the perilous venture it became in years-to-come. And the loot and booty we took in, all by just opening our bags wide: every kind of candy you can imagine, sometimes even money!

Every Thanksgiving was spent at our grandmother’s house until she passed away in the year of The Bicentennial, 1976. Then, all family gatherings came to an end when a grief-stricken Marie moved unexpectedly out to Las Vegas. I looked forward every Thanksgiving to her picking our mother, Diane and me up in her Rambler (she always bought Ramblers) to bring us over to her and Nana’s place. Marie loved holidays and always had the whole house decorated top-to-bottom. My favorite part of this holiday, other than eating turkey dinner (still my favorite meal) was helping Marie with the cooking. She let me help her with most all the preparations and I learned to feel cozy in a kitchen and around a stove, which held me in good stead in later years when I got to know Julia Child and M.F.K. Fisher in their homes. One year, though, I wasn’t paying attention and nearly took off the middle finger of my left hand with a sharp blade while slicing celery. The blood was everywhere, and Marie took a long time getting the bleeding to stop. It was scary. I still have the scar. Of course, what holiday get-together would be complete without the traditional family argument?  All the old sorrows, betrayals and disappointments would be resurrected before dessert was over. I think most readers can relate to this unavoidable part of holiday gatherings, if they’re being honest.

1960s Lowell at Christmastime was a child’s delight. All downtown was lit up like, well, like Christmas!  City Hall was covered completely in lights, front and sides. Bon Marche Department Store, too, was a magical wonderland of sounds and sights, its windows a mecca for families day-and-night all the way through to December 25th, and beyond to Little Christmas, January 6th. A favorite fun trip was piling in the car and driving all around Lowell and its suburbs to see what homeowners had done to decorate their homes and properties. In those times, every other house was a feast for the eyes. The dazzling lights display put up by Saint Francis Seminary out on River Road in Andover was a popular destination for locals. And the Poor Clares’ convent, also in Andover, had the most unforgettable collection of santons, delightful terracotta Nativity figurines that originated in Provence, many of which were made in shades of color I’d never seen before. The whole presentation by the sisters was something out of a dream. My most memorable Christmas was the morning I woke to find a brand, new bicycle in the living room beside the Christmas tree. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how Santa got an English racer down the chimney. I thought, truly, Santa Claus must be magic.

*     *     *     *

Brother and sister breaking the Thanksgiving wishbone.

Candy Hearts

Fireworks over Pawtucket Falls

Irish step dancers

Leo’s First Holy Communion 1960

Lowell Memorial Day parade

S&H Green Stamps

Santons de Provence Nativity Figures

St. Francis Seminary 40,000 Christmas lights

“Lowell has responded splendidly”

“Lowell has responded splendidly” – (PIP #75)

By Louise Peloquin

      The National Defense Day program was one of the items on the September 3^rd 1924 Lowell City Council meeting agenda. (1) 

Posting it seems appropriate on the eve of America’s 250^th birthday.

L’Étoile – Front page, September 12, 1924

A PARADE OF 7000 IN OUR STREETS

_____

To demonstrate loyalty to the flag and the determination to die for it. – Departure from North Common.  – Military aviators in the city to perform stunts.

_____

     Enrollment for the parade continues until this evening. Preparation is finished and all we are waiting for is good weather for the city of Lowell to hold the most beautiful parade in its history demonstrating its loyalty to the country.

     The parade will depart this evening at 7 from North Common. (2) There will certainly be 6,000 people in the ranks but we expect 7,500.

The parade will include all of the Lowell National Guard contingents, school military organizations, the Reserve Corps, veterans organizations and all of the city’s fraternal societies.

     A United States Army pilot will fly above the city by order of the War Department. He will arrive here at noon and will perform this evening.

     Captain Donald R. McIntyre. D.S.C. will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the aviation exercises after the parade in front of Memorial Auditorium. (3)

     If the crowd is too large for the public to assemble inside Memorial Auditorium where James Williams, editor of the Boston Transcript, will be the main speaker, Liberty Hall will also be used.

     Captain Joseph A. Molloy will direct the troops in the auditorium.

     When the committee finishes enrollment at its office in the old Courier-Citizen building in Kearney Square, there will be 3,500 people registered. This number is in addition to the military corps and city organizations participating in the parade.

     The mayor will not review the parade. He will walk at the head of his Reserve Corps company. 

     City Hall is decorated with American flags and banners displaying the national colors. Shops along the parade route have followed the mayor’s counsel to decorate with the American colors.

     City Council members and army officers will be on the platform reviewing the parade. We will see General Malvern Hill Barnum; Colonel B. P. O’Bren; Colonel Alexander Gregg; Lieutenant Brown; James T. Williams, editor of the Boston Transcript, and Congressman John Jacob Rogers.

     The speakers to close the solemnity of National Defense Day at Memorial Auditorium will be: James Williams, editor of the Boston Transcript; Lieutenant R. C. Moffatt; Mayor Donovan; Reverend John J. McGarry, D. C. L., and Reverend Percy Thomas. Dana Palmer will be the Master of Ceremonies at this meeting.

     Enrollment will end at 4 this afternoon.

     Mothers of soldiers killed in the Great War will have reserved seats at Memorial Auditorium.

     The following stores have graciously provided flowers, tobacco, and refreshments to the organizing committee: John J. Moloney; James R. Kenney; Harvey B. Greene; Samuel Scott; P. K. Smoke Shop; W. H. I. Hayes; Peter Andreoli; Robertson Tobacco Co.; Dudley L. Page; Mr. Rousseau who sells “Eat-A” donuts; and Harry H. Cole. Sargent Timothy Kimball launched the requests for donations.

General Orders, # 1

1. – What follows is public for all interested.
2. – The parade will form at North Common. The Chief administrator’s and Chief of Staff’s headquarters on the common will be at the angle of Common and Salem Streets.
3. – An aide will report the arrival of each participating group to the Chief of Staff.
4. – The parade route will be as follows: from North Common to Salem Street, down Cabot, Merrimack and East Merrimack Streets to Memorial Auditorium. Departure is at 7.

5. – The Mayor, City Council and guests will review the parade at City Hall.
6. – Upon arrival at the Auditorium, all of the organizations will maintain their ranks and positions during the ceremony.
7. – Battery B, 102^ndartillery, under the direction of Captain Harold Mather, will fire the canon for the salute. 
8. – At the end of the ceremonies, all of the organizations will be invited to march in the Auditorium for the public assembly.

There will be reserved seats for the organizations participating in the parade.

9. – The parade includes numerous army corps, civil and social organizations.

10.Lowell City Council, the Boy Scouts of America, whose members offered their services as messengers or traffic assistants, will need to report to Charles W. Barton, Field Scout Executive, at 6 to receive their post at Memorial Auditorium. 

11.The American flag will be the only national banner carried at the parade. Societies, Unions, Clubs and Lodges will be able to carry their respective banners. 

 By order of C., T. KITTEREDGE

Chief administrator

L’ÉTOILE – Front page, September 13, 1924

GREAT PROOF OF OUR CITY’S PATRIOTISM

About 4000 people paraded in our streets last night, attesting to their determination to rally around the flag in times of danger. 

BEAUTIFUL SPEECH AT THE AUDITORIUM

Beautiful patriotic spectacle. – Salute to the flag. – The canon fires. – All of the groups, clubs and societies of the city participated.

     Last night a celebration took place downtown causing more emotion in Lowellians’ hearts than during any other public demonstration of patriotism since the Armistice was signed. It was National Defense Day. Last night, when the flags flew and the last echo of the speakers’ voices dissipated, no one questioned Lowellians’ solid loyalty to their country. They proved this by going out, forming one of the largest parades ever seen here, filling the sidewalks along the parade route by the thousands, applauding the school representatives and members of the bar who hoisted the Stars and Stripes.

     The parade formed at North Common and left a bit after 7 to head towards Memorial Auditorium. 4,000 people were in the ranks. A group of police officers marched, followed by the parade leaders, the military corps and, at the end, members of various city organizations. Several excellent bands played music. We particularly noticed the following: the 385^th Artillery Reserve Corps, Regan, Lowell Cadet, Lowell High School, Anglo-American veterans of the Great War and the St. Peter and O. M. I. Cadets.

     The crowd warmly applauded the Civil War veterans. The American Legion closed the parade ranks lead by Commander Colin C. MacDonald. Once the parade had passed, the crowd left the sidewalks and went to Memorial Auditorium for the open-air exercises.

     Musicians performed on the Auditorium steps. The flag was lowered and, from the other side of the river, one could hear the 21 canon blasts for the national salute.

     Thousands of people attended the public meeting in Memorial Auditorium. On the stage were the following guests: Brigadier General Malvern H. Barbard; James T. Williams; Mayor Donovan; Major Dana Palmer; Reverend John J. McGarry, D. C. L.; Reverend Percy E. Thomas; Robert Brown; Mrs. Nellie Usher; John F. McBride; Colin C. MacDonald; James J. Gallagher; Franck K. Stearns and Daniel Cosgrove.

     Mayor Donovan was the first speaker at the Auditorium meeting. His speech was short, very appropriate, and began as follows:

“Lowell has responded splendidly to the President’s call to observe the Day of National Defense. As mayor, I wish to congratulate the patriotic service that you have rendered in taking part in the celebration.”

     Abby John J. McGarry, pastor of Saint Patrick’s Parish was the next speaker. He opened his speech with an anecdote about an American in a foreign country who is asked if he is a prince or a general. His response: “I am the greatest of anyone of these; I am an American citizen.” The speaker continued to elaborate on being an American citizen. 

     Then, Lieutenant Robert Brown spoke about the American aviators’ trip around the world and about how the development of aviation would impact the country. 

     The special speaker for the celebration was James T. Williams, editor of the Boston Transcript. He reminded everyone that the previous day was the anniversary of the Battle of Saint Mihiel…. (4 & 5) 

****

 1)   https://richardhowe.com/2025/04/08/back-to-the-city-council-1924/

PIP #64, posted on April 8, 2025, covers the September 3^rd  1924 Lowell City Council meeting agenda:

The City Council met last night at 9 for a special session opened by president Gallagher.

     Lieutenant Arthur H. Brown obtained the privilege to take the floor. He presented the National Defense Day program and asked the Council to review the parade at City Hall at 6:45 and invited the Council members to attend the public assembly at 8 at Lowell Auditorium. The invitation was accepted.

2)   “North Common – 413 Fletcher Street – 7.69 acres – swimming pool; 2 basketball courts; 1 softball field; 2 handball courts; playground; community garden; amphitheater. This land was purchased by the city of Lowell in 1845 from the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals along with the South Common. Together, they were the first public parks in Lowell and were referred to as “the lungs of the city.”

From Richard Howe’s June 22, 2025 Lowell History article.

https://richardhowe.com/2025/06/22/lowell-history-june-22-2025/

3)   Lowell Memorial Auditorium Greenspace – 52 East Merrimack Street – 2.22 acres – passive green space. This is the green space that surrounds the Lowell Memorial Auditorium which was constructed in 1922. The parcel is home to many military monuments and memorials.

From Richard Howe’s June 22, 2025 Lowell History article. Link in footnote 2.

4)   The September 12^th to 15^th 1918 battle of Saint-Mihiel in northeastern France’s Meuse department was a major one during World War I. The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and 110,000 French troops, under the command of General John J. Pershing, fought against German positions.

5)   Translations by Louise Peloquin.