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Sky Bar by Paul Marion The barbershop on upper Merrimack Street had a candy vending machine against the long side wall where customers waited in padded steel chairs. When I had a dime, I’d slot the coin and pull the handle for a Sky Bar in a yellow wrapper with…
Read More »Tom Sexton (photo by Kevin Harkins) On the Street, Tom & Me Around 2010, I wrote a series of posts for the Howe blog about my weekly hikes in Lowell. Usually I walked alone on Sunday mornings when the streets are quiet, often taking notes about what I saw and…
Read More »With St Patrick’s Day and Lowell’s Irish Cultural Week coming up soon, here’s a rerun of a 2019 post on my blog about the ethnic practices in the area along with a couple of images including champion boxer Jackie Brady of Lowell. Click the link here.
Read More »Artist Richard Marion at his Gallery 21, Hurd St, Lowell, c. 1979 (photo by Kevin Harkins) I’m posting this 2008 essay (later reprinted in 2018) for the benefit of visual artists and other folks in Lowell who have come to the city since the 1980s or later and may not…
Read More »Writer Joe Blair of Iowa by way of Westford and UMass Lowell and other locales, has a Substack newsletter account like Dick Howe Jr., executive editor and publisher of this blog. Joe’s Substack is called “Parts & Labor” (He a professional HVAC guy–heating, refrigeration, etc.) His new post is as…
Read More »Contact: Meg Smith, festival organizer, 978-996-6592 megsmithwriter675@gmail.com Poe in Lowell festival to honor Edgar Allan Poe’s visits to Lowell Lowell, Massachusetts – A new festival will celebrate Edgar Allan Poe’s three visits to Lowell, with art exhibits, spoken word readings of poetry and short stories by Poe, dance performances inspired…
Read More »Much of Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was devoted to the need for sidewalks on Campbell Drive, a 1960s-era residential street in the Highlands that’s home to the Bailey Elementary School. The school, which was constructed in the 1990s, is set back from the road and connected to Campbell Drive…
Read More »In last week’s newsletter I wrote of the coming confrontation between the Lowell City Council and Sal Lupoli over his failure to commence work on one of the two buildings he had agreed to construct in the Hamilton Canal Innovation District (HCID). The Council’s Economic Development subcommittee heard from Mr.…
Read More »Actually, I almost died four times that summer By Charlie Gargiulo After me and mom finally got kicked out of one of the last apartment buildings left in Little Canada, we got placed in an apartment next door to where our old building still stood, waiting for the wrecking ball…
Read More »Liberty Bonds – (PIP #27) By Louise Peloquin Last week’s peek into the past – “The Franco-Americans of Lowell in the War effort” – mentions World War II government bonds. (1) Twenty-seven years earlier, during World War I, L’Etoile was also encouraging its readership to purchase them. L’Etoile – October 24, 1917…
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