Boarding School Blues: Chapter 37 By Louise Peloquin Never too many, never too much Sister Claudette wasn’t expecting anyone that evening in the two-hundred-square-foot library adjacent to study hall. The elfin nun in her seventies was bent over a thick black tome and didn’t hear Blanche’s footsteps. Her eyes peered…
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In the middle of St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Lowell, just to the left of the chapel, sits a large rectangular piece of granite inscribed in memory of the graduates of Keith Academy who died while serving in the military during World War II. Located in the former Middlesex County jail…
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William Thomas Callery was born on August 16, 1945, in Lowell. His parents, Francis A. Callery and Mary T. Callery, eventually moved the family to 134 Parker Street which was just a few blocks from Tyler Park. William had four siblings: brothers Francis T. and John J. and sisters Sheila…
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I delivered the following remarks in May 2019 at the Greater Lowell Veterans Council Memorial Day service at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. For the past several years on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, we’ve made frequent mention of World War I in recognition of the centennial observance of that conflict.…
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“Operation Duke” – 1966 in Vietnam By Dean Contover It was 3:00 a.m. in Qui Nhon, Vietnam when we were awakened by the staff sergeant to go to the mess hall for breakfast and to be briefed. One hundred and eighty-seven engineers were hand-picked for this operation which was to…
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Madame la Première Ministre By Louise Peloquin On May 16th, Emmanuel Macron named Élisabeth Borne Prime Minister. In 1991, under François Mitterrand, Édith Cresson was the first woman to hold the job. The Élysée Palace put out a late afternoon communiqué: “this is the choice of competence at the service…
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Redemption By Babz Clough The Massachusetts Correctional Institute (MCI) at Norfolk was built by the inmates in the 1920s as a community-based prison in what was then rural Massachusetts. The prisoners learned how to lay bricks, how to weld, and how to plumb the buildings. They planted the gardens and…
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The Old(ish) Ballgame By Jack Neary Lowell native and baseball nut Jack Neary is a playwright, director, and actor. His plays have been produced worldwide, and he has appeared in the films THE TOWN and BLACK MASS. His website is jacknearyonline.com. I stood at home plate at Shedd Park, in…
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Living Madly – Kairos By Emilie-Noelle Provost The ancient Greeks had two words for time. The first, chronos, refers to sequential measured time: minutes, hours, days, years. It’s the root of English words like synchronous and chronological, and the perception of time we most commonly use and understand. Lately, I’ve…
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Boarding School Blues: Chapter 36 By Louise Peloquin Chapter 36: Good vibes A long frantic day was winding down. By the time Blanche finished apologizing to her teachers for skipping class, evening had fallen. Loud grumbling reminded her that an empty tummy had been ignored for too long. When the…
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