Author Archive

Appreciation of CBA Director Yun-Ju Choi

Appreciation of CBA Director Yun-Ju Choi By Charlie Gargiulo Earlier this month, Yun-Ju Choi, who has served as the Coalition for a Better Acre’s (CBA) Executive Director since 2014, announced that she will be stepping down next June. In her statement announcing her decision to resign from CBA, Yun-Ju showed…

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From Darkness Into Light—Thankful Tonight

From Darkness Into Light—Thankful Tonight By Ed DeJesus Tuesday, November 9, 1965, began like every school morning—but it sure ended differently for this fifteen-year-old boy from Lowell, Mass. I was fortunate to grow up in a ten-room, two-story tenement on Cambridge Street that my Dad, a WWII Vet, bought with a…

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“Use your tongue” (speak French)

“Use your tongue” (Speak French) By Louise Peloquin Before PIP #9, here’s a throwback on Thanksgiving 1944.  *********  L’Etoile November 22, 1944 Thanksgiving in times of war is different than that in times of peace. Let us be grateful for our victorious armies, for those who maintain their faith in…

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“A Kerouac Thanksgiving” by Suzanne Beebe

A Kerouac Thanksgiving by Suzanne Beebe Thanks, Jack, for helping keep the city On the map; for showing us what growing up Was like in 1920s/1930s Lowell of throbbing neighborhoods and mills Where workers fed machines with wool and cotton To feed their always-hungry children at home. Thanks, too, for…

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How Cawley Stadium Was Named

When the site of the stadium was still a vacant lot, it acquired the name Merrill Field after Herbert A. Merrill who had once owned the property. In the absence of anything else, the name Merrill Field stuck, at least while the permanent stadium was under construction. Even after the…

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How Cawley Stadium Came to Be

Throughout the 1930s, football fans in the city of Lowell clamored for a stadium in which the Lowell High School football team could play, especially after the city of Lawrence built its Veterans Memorial Stadium in 1927. By 1937, with the annual Lowell High versus Lawrence High Thanksgiving Day football…

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Cawley Stadium: How the Land Was Acquired

The real estate that forms the Cawley Stadium complex is a patchwork of parcels that have been compiled by the city over more than one hundred years. These are the major parcels that make up the complex: Cawley Stadium Soccer Field Alumni Baseball Field Practice Fields Martin Softball Field These…

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Richard Howe Substack – Nov 19, 2023

After cancelling meetings because of Halloween and the City Election, the City Council resumed its regular meeting schedule last Tuesday which also saw the debut of a new format for the meeting agenda. The biggest change was that City Council motions were bumped up to near the start of the…

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