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What was Christmas like in Lowell one hundred years ago? Here are some stories that appeared in the local newspapers in the days leading up to Christmas as well as some ads for local merchants: First Day of Winter: Warmer tomorrow! The weather man promises to repent and make full…
Read More »The Christmas Fruitcake: An Ageless Traditionby Henri Marchand A note from the author: Like its subject this essay has been around, appearing first as a Sunrise radio essay on WUML-FM, re-wrapped as a “Guest Column” piece in the Sun newspaper, and showing up on this blog for the past few…
Read More »Recollections of Noël By Louise Peloquin When the priest at Notre Dame de Lourdes church * put on violet vestments on the first Sunday of Advent, Noël was on the horizon. My family attended French Mass which always included traditional hymns from Québec and France. Our Advent favorite was: “Venez…
Read More »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…
Read More »Crawdaddy Remembers A 1953 Christmas Encounter With the Drifters By Bill Crawford My dad yanked me in hard out of the cold. It was mid-December 1953, and the black Gotham City skies were spitting down snow flurries. We were waiting to rendezvous with my mom who left us for a…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron This is Happiness by Niall Williams is not a book to be read in a hurry. Set in the remote village of Faha in County Clare, Ireland, the story is set in the 1950’s before electricity came to dirt-poor Faha. …
Read More »A Perfect Day By Malcolm Sharps Malcolm Sharps recalls a day in London in the seemingly much safer world of forty years ago: My girlfriend was from Brazil. Or rather, to me, she wasn’t just from Brazil, she was Brazil, the embodiment of the country, she was bossa nova, she…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. MA. Representative Ayanna Pressley is filing a resolution to strip Cong. Lauren Boebert of Colorado of her committee assignments as punishment for Boebert’s anti-Muslim slurs against Cong. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. With time ticking down on more serious matters, debating this…
Read More »Boarding School Blues: Chapter 26 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 26: Bon appétit! Gargantuan appetites wiped out the feast Tante Lucie had spent days preparing. Blanche watched spellbound as the ovenware plates were filled, cleaned, refilled and cleaned again. The sight of loaded forkfuls so quickly devoured made her feel a…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. GOP Governor Charlie Baker’s decision to opt out of a third-term election he’d probably have won is part of his appeal to the Massachusetts electorate. His disdain for the all-too-familiar despicable aspects of today’s political discourse has been…
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