Sun Up, Sun Down

By Leo Racicot

Part of the everyday fun of home life in the 1960s was having the city newspaper, The Lowell Sun, arrive afternoons around 3 or 4 o’clock. The paperboy would tuck our copy between the porch doors, safe from weather and wind. In those days, before the Internet, the glut of current television news channels like CNN, Fox NEWSMAX, etc.  long before news items would flash instantly on the computer screen mere seconds after they happened, the town or city newspaper was the only source of news, weather, sports people had.

My favorite paper day was The Sunday paper, usually bulkier than the daily one, filled with extra everything. I especially liked the Comics section, being able to follow the serial adventures of B.C., Johnny Hart’s satirical strip about cavemen, Chic Young’s Blondie featuring the title wife, her husband, Dagwood, his grumbling boss, Mr. Dithers. Other cartoons I always liked to follow: Beetle Bailey, The WIzard of Id and the one my friend, Priscilla and I still reminisce about, Walt Kelly’s beloved Pogo for its deluxe artwork, political satire, witty wordplay, and its humanist bent.

A column I always looked forward to was Charles Sampas’ long-running Sampascoopies, Running daily for nearly 40 years, it was far more than a typical news column; it was a mainstay capturing the distinct personality, neighborhood flavor, everyday rhythms of what Sampas lovingly dubbed Lowelltown. Filled with local politics and city shenanigans, bits of gossip, the occasional forays into the national and world scene, it became a part of Lowell chronicles for nearly four decades. On the other side of the journalistic spectrum was Sampas’s wife, Mary, whose columns also ran daily, at first under the pen name, Girl Friday then under a new pseudonym, Pertinax, which Sun owner. George Costello, suggested she use. Pertinax was the pen name used by the French journalist, Andre Geraud, and Mary preferred the mysterious quality the name conjured.  Her columns functioned as a mix of a traditional society page, lifestyle chronicles and civic commentary. Joe and I liked following her features, especially reading about the latest gossipy antics of her world traveling society pal, Cookie Vrouhas. One memorable quote of Cookie’s reaction to a trip she made to Rhodes an island off the coast of Greece, has stuck with us all these years later –  “All Rhodes is, is a ruin.” Clearly, Cookie was not impressed with Rhodes!

As movie lovers, Joe & I also kept a close eye on The Sun’s entertainment critic, William Sarmento. His glib, witty summaries of current films could get us chuckling, as when he tagged a new John Wayne movie, Rio Lobo with the caveat to audiences: RIO LOBO IS A REAL BORE-O. If he didn’t care for a movie, he was likely to warn readers, “Don’t forget to bring a retch bag with you to the theater.”  One could at times detect a touch of pretension behind his reviews. After all, he wasn’t Kenneth Tynan. Sarmento’s personal, quirky style of writing gave locals a peek into the cultural world beyond the confines of Lowell. And I loved the sketch of him accompanying his columns, his trademark bowtie and pork pie hat.

Modern day technological shifts in how people access the news led to the eventual downfall of the hardcopy newspaper. I think The Lowell Sun is still in operation but today’s generations much prefer having their news and culture delivered to them digitally, online, where they can see everything instantly with the click of a button. High production costs and a low readership have combined to make newspapers prohibitively expensive. This summer, deciding to treat myself to a Lowell Sunday Sun, I nearly fell over when the cashier girl rang up the price.

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Paperboy, 1960s

Charles Sampas

Mary Sampas column

Pogo

William Sarmento