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Jim Sampas grew up on Wilder Street in the Highlands. His aunt Stella married Jack Kerouac in the 1960s. These days, Jim is a producer of music recordings and movies, the latest project being a feature film based on Kerouac’s 1962 novel “Big Sur.” The movie premiered at the Sundance…
Read More »Another excerpt from John Greenleaf Whittier’s “The Stranger in Lowell” (1843).—PM . “As a matter of course, in a city like this, composed of all classes of our many-sided population, a great variety of religious sects have their representatives in Lowell. The young city is dotted over with ‘steeple houses,’…
Read More »In 1843, the poet, newspaper editor, and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) published a collection of essays titled The Stranger in Lowell. For a time, he published a newspaper called The Middlesex Standard in Lowell. He was born in Haverhill and lived in both Amesbury and Haverhill. Following is an…
Read More »I haven’t dragged David “Uncle Dave” Brooks over here for a long time. He was irritating during the presidential election, trying to find ways to stay on Mitt Romney’s side—every once in a while he gave it up for the President, but I think Uncle Dave was always pulling for…
Read More »I enjoyed watching and listening to the inauguration of President Obama this time even more than the first time. In 2009, we knew we were seeing a history-making event. His election both represented and caused a developmental leap in the American psyche. I never thought his re-election would be easy.…
Read More »“Boot Cotton Storehouse, Eastern Canal” by Richard Marion (c) 2013 See more artwork at www.richardmarion.net
Read More »In 1958, the League of Women Voters published a pamphlet with results of a survey about Lowell, which was intended to provide “general background on which citizens can base informed opinions and take intelligent action on local governmental issues.” The pamphlet was produced with financial assistance from the First Federal…
Read More »In 1996, I led a creative writing workshop for the Hellenic Culture Society of Lowell. For the first session I asked the participants to do an exercise. Everyone would contribute one line on the theme of his or her mother’s kitchen. When we had all the individual lines, I took…
Read More »On January 7, 1889, Mayor Charles D. Palmer delivered his inaugural address to the two branches of the City Council (the Common Council and the Board of Aldermen). The Mayor covered many topics in his remarks, from city finances (cash in the treasury as of Dec. 31, 1888: $59,265.27 [a…
Read More »In a ceremony on Thursday, October 1, 1942, at 3 p.m., Rear Admiral W. J. Carter, (S.C.) U.S. Navy, presented to F. A. Flather of the Boott Mills a red, white, and blue pennant representing the Army-Navy Production Award for high achievement in the production of military material needed for…
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