Trasna is pleased to announce that poet Daniel Murphy will join its team of editors. This week we feature four of his poems. Whether it’s a “rusty gate in a field of rock,” or “the cream cheese on your cheek,” Murphy explores the expansive to the intimate. There is a rhythm in…
This article first appeared in Merrimack Valley Magazine (Nov/Dec, 2020). “Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?”: A Holiday Mosaic Painting by Vassilios Giavis, reprinted from Merrimack Valley Magazine. St. Patrick’s Day, 1986, Liberty Hall (Merrimack Rep Theatre) in Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Benefit reading for a new organization pledged to…
Belinda Juran, a Lowell Walks veteran and active community member occasionally sends emails to her contacts with information about what’s going on in the city. Today’s version was so chock full of great holiday ideas, that I asked permission to repost it here. WCAP Salvation Army radiothon – Every year,…
Remembering a Friendship: Robert W. Whitaker, III Nov. 9, 1950 – Sept. 16, 2019 By David Daniel We became friends through propinquity. Bob and his wife Anne and my wife Stephanie and I were among the first inhabitants of the regal old Lamson Estate on Nesmith Street in Belvidere when…
My Life With Lowell’s Favorite Good Humor Man, Mister Softee By Pierre V. Comtois He became a summer tradition. When the sun shone down from blue, cloudless skies and heated up the city sidewalks such that walking barefoot was impossible without burning your feet, there was that familiar jingle that…
In recognition of Labor Day, here is the lead editorial from the September 7, 1992 edition of The New York Times – A Labor Day piece about the then-recently opened Boott Cotton Mills Museum. The Boott Cotton Mills Museum is open daily from 10am until 5pm, especially on Labor Day. …
The House That Stavros Built By Steve O’Connor Stavros Panagiotopoulos is at his customary table at the rear of the Athenian Corner on Market Street. At the age of 87, he still drives to his restaurant every morning, unlocking the door at 6:00 AM. He puts on the coffee, and…
I Was a Teenage Bibliophile By Pierre V. Comtois This story originally appeared in River Muse: Tales of Lowell and the Merrimack Valley. It’s hard to believe now, but at one time Lowell was a veritable Mecca for lovers of the written word with books and magazines available almost everywhere…
That’s a lot of “l’s” in the headline. Lowell has a new bookstore, “lala books,” named for owners Laura and Greg LaMarre Anderson. They worked with local real estate consultants at The Edge Group to get established at 189 Market Street close to the city parking garage. The bright interior,…
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2021 edition of The Epitaph, the quarterly newsletter of Lowell Cemetery. Dr. Gilman Kimball (1804-1892) During the second half of the nineteenth century, Lowell became the center of the lucrative patent medicine business. Three of the primary purveyors – James C. Ayer, Charles…
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