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The Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775, when a British Army expedition marched from Boston to Concord in search of contraband munitions. Confronted by a local militia company on Lexington Green on the way to Concord, firing erupted. Although no one knows who fired the first shot, eight of…
Read More »On this evening in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Like so much else in American history, there was a Lowell connection to that event. Here’s the story which has been previously published on this site. On April 14, 1865 – Good Friday…
Read More »The Tipping Point By Tim Trask Part 2 The inmates flooded into the chapel in an excited rush, paying no attention to either me or Tiresias. They were just intent on getting good seats. I recognized a couple of the most eager of them. There was Campbell, a transfer from…
Read More »In 1969, Tim Trask returned from the Vietnam War and took a job as a guard at Massachusetts Correctional Institute (MCI) Concord. The following post, and part 2 which follows tomorrow, are taken from his memoir about that experience. The first chapter of that work, Odysseus Wandering, appeared on this…
Read More »A Decade of Digging By John Wooding President of Mill City Grows This year Mill City Grows (MCG) celebrates 10 years of working with the Lowell community to promote food justice, locally grown organic food, and food education. Founded by Francey Slater and Lydia Sisson, MCG has grown from an…
Read More »Boarding School Blues: Chapter 33 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 33: Cuisses de grenouille Back in October, when the sun kissed the grounds and clement breezes made kaleidoscopic funnels from multicolored leaves, biology teacher, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus – Sister T for short – was allowed to hold classes…
Read More »Catherine and John Goodwin were iconic figures in the history community of Lowell. Catherine originated the very popular walking tours of Lowell Cemetery and led them for several decades. When age prevented her from continuing, she put out a call for a volunteer to take over the tours. I responded,…
Read More »About 20 years ago there was a movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding which became an unexpected hit. My favorite part of the movie, besides its excellent soundtrack, was the bride’s father, Costas “Gus” Portokalos, played by Michael Constantine. Gus owned a restaurant, of course, and had a remarkable…
Read More »The Valley of the World By Jim Provencher You wouldn’t know it today if you were Jack Kerouac heading West the first time, entering El Paso along East Alameda, the blink-bright high-arched sky, the whole world opening up. Jack woke shouting to the morning, This is the Valley of the…
Read More »Valley Girl By David Daniel Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou. Knopf, 325 pp, $27.95. The Dropout Hulu television miniseries (episodes 1-5). Reviewed by David Daniel. ******** In a 2018 60 Minutes segment on health technology company Theranos, its young CEO and founder…
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