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In the middle of St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Lowell, just to the left of the chapel, sits a large rectangular piece of granite inscribed in memory of the graduates of Keith Academy who died while serving in the military during World War II. Located in the former Middlesex County jail…
Read More »William Thomas Callery was born on August 16, 1945, in Lowell. His parents, Francis A. Callery and Mary T. Callery, eventually moved the family to 134 Parker Street which was just a few blocks from Tyler Park. William had four siblings: brothers Francis T. and John J. and sisters Sheila…
Read More »I delivered the following remarks in May 2019 at the Greater Lowell Veterans Council Memorial Day service at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. For the past several years on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, we’ve made frequent mention of World War I in recognition of the centennial observance of that conflict.…
Read More »“Operation Duke” – 1966 in Vietnam By Dean Contover It was 3:00 a.m. in Qui Nhon, Vietnam when we were awakened by the staff sergeant to go to the mess hall for breakfast and to be briefed. One hundred and eighty-seven engineers were hand-picked for this operation which was to…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. My dad was one of the first generation of type 1 diabetics to survive because insulin was available. We worried about him as over the years he developed one after another of the complications of this potentially deadly…
Read More »Madame la Première Ministre By Louise Peloquin On May 16th, Emmanuel Macron named Élisabeth Borne Prime Minister. In 1991, under François Mitterrand, Édith Cresson was the first woman to hold the job. The Élysée Palace put out a late afternoon communiqué: “this is the choice of competence at the service…
Read More »Redemption By Babz Clough The Massachusetts Correctional Institute (MCI) at Norfolk was built by the inmates in the 1920s as a community-based prison in what was then rural Massachusetts. The prisoners learned how to lay bricks, how to weld, and how to plumb the buildings. They planted the gardens and…
Read More »The Old(ish) Ballgame By Jack Neary Lowell native and baseball nut Jack Neary is a playwright, director, and actor. His plays have been produced worldwide, and he has appeared in the films THE TOWN and BLACK MASS. His website is jacknearyonline.com. I stood at home plate at Shedd Park, in…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (author of A Gentleman in Moscow) follows Emmett Watson, an 18-year-old just released from a juvenile work farm for accidentally causing the death of a fellow who had been bullying him. Having survived his…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. With spring, we’re all getting out more. But even with yard cleanup and planting, and longer walks to enjoy, there’s still time for the pleasures of reading. Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe is a full accounting of Purdue…
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