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Eddy Silva’s Wake By Mark Cote Eddy Silva died last Tuesday. Heart attack. 68 years old. Looked 82. Untethered by circumstances he lived the life of a drifter. Two wives, five kids and countless jobs on his scorecard. Beaten down. Neither women nor job could keep him in one place…
Read More »Fifty years ago this week Congressman F. Bradford Morse wrote the following letter to Lowell Mayor Richard P. Howe (my father) urging the city to begin planning for the 150th anniversary of the grant of the charter for Lowell which coincided with the 200th anniversary of the United States. This…
Read More »Boarding School Blues By Louise Peloquin Chapter 9: Inside & Outside Study Hall Sixty desks were arranged in ten rows in the second floor study hall where any breach of the silence rule lead to the worst of sanctions – recreation deprivation. Every cough, sneeze or sigh echoed so clearly…
Read More »Zombie Wonderland By David Daniel The radio DJ said, “Be caller number seven and win!” Bored, I dialed. “Congratulations,” someone said, not the deejay, a young woman, probably a station intern. “You’re caller seven.” “Cool,” I said. “I never win anything.” “Well, you sure did this time. Your name and…
Read More »Greek Angel of History By George Chigas Two hundred years ago on March 25, 1821, Greek revolts broke out against the Ottoman Turks, who had occupied Greece for the previous four hundred years. Nine years later, after a hard-fought war, the Greeks regained their independence and now, each year, celebrate…
Read More »A Walk Before the Storm By Prudence Brighton Juniper turned toward me and announced, “I haven’t had fresh air in a long time.” She is six and had just finished her remote learning for the day. We were out for a walk before a winter storm closed in. Walking with…
Read More »The city of Lowell recently announced that the School Committee districts for the 2021 Lowell City Election have been set. Under the settlement of the Voting Rights Lawsuit brought against the city, the method of electing councilors and school committee members would change from the all members elected at large…
Read More »The Paper Route By Jacqueline Cayer Nelson McDonald Reviewed by Richard Howe When asked to list my favorite activities, reading would be near the top. Because history would also be high on that list, most of the books I read are nonfiction. But every so often I pick up a…
Read More »Black Fingernails and Calluses By Mark Cote Every old man wants to tell the story of when he was somebody. When he knew what to do, where to be and when. When he had a routine to his day, even had a title at the job he spent more than…
Read More »Low Tide on the Merrimack By Cody Kucker The river’s dropped beneath the bundled scraps of wind-pruned trees, abandoned now and dammed. Stray branches split and thin the rivulets, silvered and made vitreous by the sun. Canals form, levied by skippable stones that, like the branches, have carried here and…
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