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MassMoments reminds us that on this day – May 26, 1647 – the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony banned those “devils” – all Jesuit priests – from entering the Colony. The Puritans were particularly hostile to Roman Catholics. Puritans had originally separated from the Church of England because they believed…
Read More »Dave McKeon posts on the Lowell Irish blog his memories of Memorial Day from decades ago. The city’s celebration then was centered around a major downtown parade but then everyone would travel to the various cemeteries around the city to pay respects to deceased family members. There were also important…
Read More »“Dawn Birds” by Richard Marion (c) 2013 See more artwork at www.richardmarion.net I saw a large “vee” of geese in the sky last Sunday when I was doing yard work. I heard them honking before I saw them overhead.—PM
Read More »When I was growing up a lame riddle often repeated was: “Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.” Looking back on it, I can see the question and answer are just kind of daffy, but also hear a little bit of a Merrimack…
Read More »MassMoments reminds us that on this day May 22, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was viciously attacked on the floor of the United States – beaten with a cane by Preston Brooks, a Congressman from South Carolina. The issue – the language used by Sumner in a passionate anti-slavery…
Read More »Photo taken last September, 2012 Returning home from my errands at 2:10pm … I encountered a Lowell Police presence along with many utility and city trucks as a very large branch of the iconic Pow Wow Oak that hung over Clark Road in Lowell has broken off… hard to see…
Read More »The aftermath of the South Lowell (then Tewksbury) Cartidge Company Explosion, 1903. The Lowell Historical Society will hold its annual meeting tonight in the ground level Community Room of the Pollard Memorial Library. The meeting itself begins at 6:30pm with a brief business meeting and election of officers and directors.…
Read More »Ray Manzarek, one of the giants of 1960s rock and roll, died yesterday at the age of 74. The co-founder of The Doors performed in Lowell once with The Doors, at the Commodore Ballroom in 1967, and twice with poet Michael McClure at the Smith Baker Center for the annual…
Read More »Acclaimed author Paul Theroux visited Lowell a few months ago on assignment from Barron’s online journal. The Medford native rode the train to Lowell, retracing his mother’s route to college in the late 1920s. She earned a teaching degree from Lowell Normal School. Theroux spent a day in Lowell, hosted…
Read More »Merrimack . We live thirty miles inland along the old road to the coast, a road laid down on an early wagon track, which followed the Indian trace—a long day on sure feet giving way to oxcarts that took half the week to return from the sea with their burdens…
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