Congratulations to Middlesex Community College for tonight’s 12th MCC Celebrity Forum at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Ken Burns was simply outstanding. He entered from the rear of the hall, accompanied by a vintage recording of “This Land is Your Land” and quickly mounted the stage that was decorated by foliage,…
Mass Moments, the daily digest of historical events in the Commonwealth, reports that the Massachusetts Constitution was adopted on this date in 1780. Written primarily by John Adams, the document endured a lengthy ratification process which was finalized on June 15, 1780, making the next day the date of its…
Midway through my freshman year at Providence College I joined the ROTC program. PT, or physical training, was a big part of Army life so running became part of my daily routine back then. Thirty years later, it still is. Because I run for exercise and enjoyment, my distance, speed…
The Lowell Police Department has an online survey that asks residents to rate the Department’s performance and to assess the levels of crime in your neighborhood. The survey takes less than five minutes to complete and is not the least bit intrusive. I think it’s great that the LPD is…
We bought our first Mercury Sable back in the 1990s and now have our fourth and fifth versions of that car sitting in the driveway. The recent news that Ford is putting an end to its 71-year old Mercury line provokes mixed feelings in me: I have some affection for…
In 1868, Lowell resident Charles Cowley wrote the “Illustrated History of Lowell”, a book filled with fascinating facts about our city. Earlier this week I began “tweeting” these facts on Twitter, one each day. Here’s a compilation of this week’s tweets: June 7 – My new project: a daily Tweet…
Those of us of a certain age remember Len Berman, who I erroneously thought was the older brother of ESPN’s Chris Berman, who was the main WBZ-TZ sportscaster from 1973 to 1978 when he moved to New York and the big time. Len Berman did nightly sports for more than…
Tomorrow morning (Saturday, June 12, 2010) at 10 am, I’ll be leading a tour of historic Lowell Cemetery. We start at the Knapp Avenue gate which is right next to Shedd Park. There’s no charge and the tour takes about 90 minutes. Please consider joining us.
Earlier this week I traveled to the Massachusetts State Archives to assist an acquaintance from the West Coast in his Civil War research. The Archives is located at Columbia Point in Boston, next to the JFK Library and not far from the UMass Boston Campus. While I’d been there before,…
In the middle of Lowell’s St Patrick’s Cemetery, right next to the chapel, sits a monument to the graduates of Keith Academy who died during World War Two. While at the cemetery this Memorial Day, I photographed the monument which bears the following description: DEDICATED TO THE MEN OF KEITH…