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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…
Read More »At Land’s End with Jack Kerouac By Jim Provencher After all that road-going, coasting into Frisco was always an arrival of respite and relief for Jack Kerouac, shaking off desert dust, bathing in thick ocean fogs, luxuriating in the warm, boisterous scenes of Chinatown, North Beach, Berkeley and Russian Hill. …
Read More »Boarding School Blues: Chapter 32 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 32: Mnemonic Device The weeks after Thanksgiving flowed with relative calm while the student body settled into a routine structured by SFA rules and regulations. As the novelty of boarding school had worn off, spells of boredom set in. In an…
Read More »Some news from DIY Lowell: The DIY Lowell Advisory Committee selected downtown resident Jack Moynihan and the Lowell Litter Krewe among more than a dozen nominees for its annual awards to be given at the fourth annual “Community Chill Night Chili and Stew Contest,” on March 25, 2022. The event…
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