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On this day – May 23, 1900 – Sergeant William Harvey Carney was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery on July 18, 1863. He fought for the Union cause as a member of the fabled 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. Recruited from freed slaves – it was the…
Read More »On this date 150 years ago, Lowell’s Benjamin Butler took command of Fort Monroe, a massive installation at the southern tip of Hampton, Virginia that remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War. Very early in his tenure at Fort Monroe, Butler was confronted with the novel problem of what…
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 »Admittedly, I was a bit nervous about my recent phone conversation with Lowell SUN reporter Joyce Tsai. She or her editor had read my early April blog post about construction activity in my North Tewksbury neighborhood. My views have been sought over the years about politics, local history and my…
Read More »I don’t know if it is because we endured such a harsh winter this year, but the spring season seems like it has come to us in high-definition. I’ve read the media coverage about the mother-of-all-allergy-seasons and the double deluxe blooming in the woods and fields. That’s part of the overall…
Read More »I don’t think of NYTimes columnist Maureen Dowd as a sentimental person, at least not from her opinion pieces, but in her latest op-ed column she gets a little misty in between her wise-gal lines as she writes about the Irish embrace of both Queen Elizabeth II and President Obama.…
Read More »You Can’t Go Home Again, But Your Old Car Can I left my old home town for good nearly 25 years ago, after spending a rich early career helping to rebuild its historic structures and fading reputation. And, although I have few opportunities to walk her streets or visit old…
Read More »One of our far-flung correspondents, Ray LaPorte of Lowell and beyond, sent this phone-cam picture of a Kerouac souvenir t-shirt in a shop window in Vineyard Haven on “the Island” in the Atlantic.
Read More »In the mid-1960’s there was a boomlet of interest in Unidentified Flying Objects, yes, those pesky UFO’s. In my semi-rural suburban neighborhood in Dracut there was a phase one summer when some people stood on their porches and in the backyards and looked up at the star-packed sky. They were…
Read More »Don’t forget the “Rally to Keep the Fifth Intact” today at 1pm at the UMass Lowell/Inn & Conference Center at 50 Warren Street in historic downtown Lowell – the heart of the Fifth Congressional District. Please join us! Here’s your invitation: Dear Friend, Please join Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, special guest…
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