Looking Back to 1968 by Paul Marion In late November 1968, my friend Susan April walked three miles in the rain from her home in Dracut, Mass., to buy the new Beatles double album at a Lowell record shop and hitchhiked home when the paper bag from the store began…
Michael Ansara of Carlisle, Mass., who has family roots in Lowell, has published a first-person account of the social turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s, a time when he was a young activist, fired-up in pursuit of peace and justice. His book, The Hard Work of Hope: A Memoir is…
Movie Theaters of Lowell…and Beyond…. By Leo Racicot My lifelong love of the movies began when I was a boy; every Friday night in summers, my father and I would pile into his old, green Plymouth and head for Lowell Drive-In Theater or Chelmsford Drive-In Theater to see the latest…
It’s Monsieur Hood! By Louise Peloquin Summer memories of a Lowell Highlands childhood pop up like fireworks as the dog days jolt this forever-young baby-boomer. Halloween adventures and Christmas celebrations remain vivid. A couple of them have been posted here. (1) Outside of these landmarks, routine occurrences, like the Hood milk deliveries,…
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron. Every day, the 45th President of the United States finds a new low to which he can drag down the country, whether in eviscerating the rule of law, subverting our international relations, wantonly pandering conflicts of interest, or rapaciously using…
There was no Lowell City Council meeting this week due to the summer schedule so today I’ll catch up on a variety of topics. To begin, a couple of items in last week’s newsletter warrant further comment: In recounting the council’s discussion of a replacement project for sidewalks and streetside…
In my June 22, 2025, Substack newsletter, I wrote short origin stories of city of Lowell parks that were two or more acres in size and promised to get to the smaller parks in the coming weeks. Today’s installment covers many of the parks smaller than two acres in size.…
Jack Kerouac and Annie Powell: both on the road past Al’s Lunch By Kurt Phaneuf and Bernie Zelitch Al’s Lunch, a picturesque diner in the heart of Lowell’s Little Canada, was too fleeting to make the public record. Nevertheless, it lives through a famous home-grown writer and an under-appreciated immigrant…
Living Madly: The Chairs of Summer By Emilie-Noelle Provost Over the past five years, Rob and I have spent several weekends at the Eagle Mountain House in Jackson, New Hampshire. We began staying at the hotel because it’s close to many of the places we like to go hiking. One of the…
Meeting Julia Child by Leo Racicot I had become good friends with the well-loved American writer, M.F.K. Fisher (Mary Frances) when, on one of my many, cherished visits to her bungalow home in Glen Ellen, her friend, Julia Child, phoned her for a chat. After she hung up, I saw…
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