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Lowell celebrated Keraouc’s future friend – (PIP #42) By Louise Peloquin An October gathering of Kerouac’s friends and admirers would definitely have included Fr. Armand Morrissette, O.M.I. (1910-1991) who recognized in adolescent Jack a talent which would become no less than stellar. “Father Spike” championed Jack even into eternity when,…
Read More »Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting took just under two hours to complete. No single issue dominated. In keeping with the civil engineering focus of this city council, motions and reports on traffic, parking, and related matters came up repeatedly. Nothing seems to delight this council more than a discussion on…
Read More »Philip A. Donahue passed away on September 17, 2024. (His obituary is available here.) His brother, Richard K. Donahue Jr., delivered his eulogy at his funeral mass at the Immaculate Conception Church in Lowell on September 27, 2024. Richard consented to the publication of his eulogy here: Eulogy for Philip…
Read More »Instruction – (PIP #41) By Louise Peloquin A hundred years ago, a call for instruction. L’Etoile, September 3, 1924 Instruction (Of Liberty) Our little schoolchildren, with schoolbags strapped over their shoulders, will soon return to school. Vacation time and endless games will have lasted the lifespan of…
Read More »The Impossible Dream: The 1967 Red Sox The end of another disappointing Red Sox season on Sunday was tempered by a Bob Ryan column in the Sunday Boston Globe about the importance of October 1st in the Red Sox universe. (“It was pivotal day in year that changed it…
Read More »At Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting, councilors received a comprehensive presentation from a representative of Commonwealth Care Alliance, a 20-year-old Boston-based nonprofit corporation that has contracted with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to operate the family emergency shelter program housed in the former UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center in downtown…
Read More »From the Saint Laurence to the Merrimack and back By Louise Peloquin For several weeks, Dick Howe has been posting photos of Lowell monuments testifying to the city’s rich and varied past. Although the following monument is located 384 miles to the north, it commemorates the French-Canadian history which links…
Read More »Roger Baribeault Square – Fisher Street and Cumberland Road – Born in Lowell in 1923, Roger Baribeault served in the U.S. Army in World War II and was awarded a bronze star for heroism. His was a lifelong parishioner of St. Louis de France Church in Centralville and member of…
Read More »Alfred J. Baraby Jr. Square – Andover Street and Wilder Road – Alfred J. Baraby Jr. was born in Nashua in 1919. He eventually moved to Lowell and was a longtime resident of Belvidere. He served in the United States Army during World War II. After the war, he worked…
Read More »There was no Lowell City Council meeting this past week, so I’ll pick up where I left off in my last newsletter and share some more thoughts on elections and mail-in voting. In the aftermath of the September 3, 2024, primary election, people asked me, “Were you surprised by the…
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