Author Archive

A Safe Distance

A Safe Distance By Malcolm Sharps If there was a maximum to the number of hobbies one person could actively pursue in a life, Netta must have been approaching the limit. Some hobbies, like football refereeing and folk dancing, appeared grossly inappropriate for a woman of her size. And learning…

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More from UN COP26 Conference

Perspective on the UN COP26 Climate Conference Glasgow Agreement By David Turcotte David Turcotte, a UMass Lowell Research Professor in the Economics Department and a member of the steering committee of the University’s Climate Change Initiative, attended the recent COP26 conference in Scotland and shared the following report. (His initial…

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1953 City Council race decided by SJC

While the city of Lowell has been the scene of many close elections, perhaps the most notable one is the 1953 city council race that was ultimately decided by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court five months after the election. The combatants in this contest were incumbent councilor Nicholas Contakos and…

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Boarding School Blues: Chapter 24

Boarding School Blues: Chapter 24 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 24: Merci Mon Oncle Blanche and her siblings got up early the morning of Thanksgiving. Along with Noël and Halloween, it was the most exciting day of the year. There were no wrapped packages under decorated trees and no brown paper…

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The Lessons of History

I delivered the following remarks on November 11, 2018, at the Greater Lowell Veterans Council Veterans Day ceremony at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. The Lessons of History By Richard P. Howe Jr. Thirty-eight years ago this Wednesday – November 14, 1980 – I boarded a plane at New York’s JFK…

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I Hear You Lima Charlie

“I Hear You Lima Charlie—How Me?”:  A Radio Transmission From The Jungle War By Bill Crawford The electric crescendo overhead went strangely silent as the thunder and lightning gave way to the drumbeat of rain on the rusty tin roof. The Hawk feverishly spun the dials on his old field…

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Visiting With Two Very Special Veterans

  Visiting With Two Very Special Veterans By Steve O’Connor (Originally posted on May 24, 2009) In the following essay, originally read on UMass Lowell’s Sunrise program on WUML, Steve O’Connor remembered a day spent with two very special veterans, Edwin Poitras and Jack Flood, both of whom survived unsurvivable circumstances…

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An American in Paris

An American in Paris By Louise Peloquin On September 16, 1940, the US passed the Selective Service Act allowing the draft of eligible men for military service. Hence, Laval U. Peloquin, one of nine children born to French-Canadian immigrants Joseph and Marieanne, was plucked out of civilian life and deposited…

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