RichardHowe.com – Voices from Lowell & Beyond

Fast Food, Spindle City

Fast Food, Spindle City

By Leo Racicot

In 1965, when radio and newspaper ads announced that a new type of eating place was coming to town, area excitement was high. The restaurant was called McDonald’s and promised to offer fast, cheap service, new kinds of food flavors different from the diner and restaurant fare people were accustomed to. McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Lowell on Rogers Street near the Tewksbury line in the summer of ’65. Always up for a new adventure, Aunt Marie headed her Rambler toward it first chance she got, with al of us in tow. I can still remember our mother pointing out, “There it is!” when she spied the matching pair of Golden Arches over to the right, The first sight of what would become a familiar part not only of America’s but also of the world’s landscapes. Once inside, we admired the look of the place; spanking clean, colorful, bright. Equally colorful and bright was the restaurant’s mascot, Ronald McDonald, the clown standing outside the front door handing out balloons. The place was packed. After sampling the new and unusual hamburgers, fries and a soda, we admitted it was a special place, a special taste we’d never tasted before. The service was, indeed, fast and amazingly affordable. We were to go back, as a family many times in the years ahead and I still stop in to a McDonald’s whenever I want a nosh. In summertime, I especially like treating myself to one of their Soft Serve vanilla ice cream cones for its airy texture and flavorful, almost paper-thin cones.

With the instant success of this new-fangled kind of dining came other fast food joints to Lowell. Howdy sprang up at the corner of Dutton and Thorndike Streets across the street from where the Dutton Dunkin’ Donuts now stands. My friend, Anthony Kalil and I, would ride our bikes up for a snack while “on the road”. I can still taste the distinctive flavor of a Howdy burger and shake. Its 10 cent hamburgers and 7 cent fries were out-of-this-world. When I was living in Las Vegas, the burgers the restaurant chain, Carl’s Jr. served reminded me of the taste of Howdy burgers. Unfortunately, Howdy’s didn’t stick around for long; it closed its doors in, I think, around 1970. It took a while to get used to the fact that it had disappeared.

Burger King became a alternative to McDonald’s; it was popular in a different way; its food had a char-broiled flavor as compared with McDonald’s salty, more savory flavors.

Wendy’s chain of restaurants boasted what founder, Dave Thomas, boasted were real hamburgers made with real beef, the implication being that other chains used meat substitutes in their food. He used an image of his daughter as his logo and in advertisements giving an impression of a healthier, sunnier more wholesome American vibe. Wendy’s, though inexpensive, was the slightly more expensive of the chains, the fancy fast food place. Adding to its popularity was an open salad bar from which customers could pick and choose from a dozen or more items and could return to replenish their plates as many times as they liked. Wendy’s topped this feature by replacing it with the Superbar.  The Superbar consisted of three, distinct stations: The Garden Spot, featuring lettuce, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, bacon bits, boiled eggs, cheeses, and multiple dressing options. The bacon bits were my favorite. The Mexican Fiesta: A do-it-yourself taco and nacho bar equipped with taco shells, seasoned ground beef, nacho chips, shredded cheddar, salsa, and jalapenos. And last but not least, Pasta Pasta, an Italian station that included spaghetti, fettuccine Alfredo, marinara sauce, and even pizza. Wendy’s also offered up what’s become a familiar staple, a baked potato. Whenever he eats at Wendy’s, Joe likes to order the baked potato along with a small bowl of its classic chili. a hearty combination. What we liked about Wendy’s is that, unlike other fast food eateries, it had plastic Tiffany lamps hanging from the ceiling. One Christmas, I bought Joe a mock one at Miles next door to Chock Full of Nuts on Summer Street in downtown Boston. I think somewhere, he still has it. At Wendy’s, you never had to clean up after yourself or throw your items away; the “help” did that for you, like in real restaurants. I still stop in at the Wendy’s on Arlington Street after leaving nearby Parker Library to grab a snack while waiting for my bus home.

A final observation. after monopolizing the food culture for decades, fast service, cheap prices have given way to much slower service, higher costs. The other day I waited half-an-hour for a breakfast wrap and a small coffee. The guy in front of me who’d been waiting even longer for his order turned around saying, “Remember when fast food was fast??  Since Covid, wait staff concentrate more on the Drive-Thru line, less on the In-Store customer. I try steering clear of those self- service kiosks. I’m just no good with them. One time, I tried ordering a small coffee at a McDonald’s kiosk and out came a full hotcakes breakfast for me with a large McFlurry. Oy! Woe to the customer who just wants to order a hash brown. Get ready to be turned upside-down by a talking machine that wants your name/rank and serial number. Oh, and whether you want to donate your change to charity!  The fast food experience isn’t what it used to be.

_____________________

Burger King

Howdy’s

Ronald McDonald

Wendy’s logo

Wendy’s Pseudo Tiffany Lamp

Wendy’s SuperBar

Seen & Heard: Vol. 33

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday. 

Museum Exhibit: “American Stories: Revolution to Rockwell” at Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts until October 26, 2026. Anytime we visit the Berkshires, the Rockwell Museum is a regular destination, mostly because of the interesting temporary exhibits presented there. This one is unique in that it encompasses the entire museum. The show utilizes paintings, prints, drawings and other pieces to illustrate how works of art showed the progression of life in the United States from the Revolution up to the present. Notably, the Rockwell Museum does not accept any federal funding so there were no restraints on the content presented as there have been with other museums that have had content censored by the US government.

Blog Post: “Why the Backlash Against Data Centers Is So Potent” Talking Points Memo website, July 31, 2026. Talking Points Memo, better known now as TPM, has been around for a long time. Its editor and primary writer, Josh Marshall, shares opinions on national politics that usually make lots of sense to me (meaning he’s pretty progressive). In this post, he analyzed local pushback against data centers. The AI companies are owned by the richest men in the world – and they always seem to be men – who, because of their unimaginable wealth, always get their way. And if someone says no, they just go ahead and do it anyway, assured that their wealth and the political power that they purchase will ensure no negative repercussions. Marshall’s point is that method of operation hits a potential roadblock on the local level where planning and zoning boards and citizen participation, make local government less dependent and less subservient to the immense power of the data center purveyors. We might be seeing that in action in Lowell right now. 

Article: “Rescuers show signs of harm to the brain but aren’t helped.” By Dave Philipps in New York Times, August 1, 2026. This is a sad story that begins with a retired veteran of 21 years in the Coast Guard taking his own life after increasingly violent and erratic behavior while still in the service that grew worse as time went on. Throughout his Coast Guard career, he was a crewmember on rescue boats, 47-foot long craft designed to plow through heavy surf to conduct rescues and other missions. After the man died, his high school age daughter contacted the Coast Guard to inquire if anything about his job may have caused his condition. She was told no. Not accepting that, she developed a questionnaire for a school project and shared it with several dozen Coast Guard personnel who had the same job as her dad. The results were astounding because most of the respondents had similar symptoms. She won an award for her science project but also caused the Coast Guard to open its eyes to growing research around the world that crew members on these kinds of boats sustain severe head injuries from the constant pounding their bodies take in the heavy surf. This is another example of how we don’t know as much as we think we do about how the human body works and it demonstrates the importance of conducting science and medical research and being open to new ideas and spotting causal connections we haven’t yet thought about. 

Book Review: The Enlightenment: A Very Short Introduction by John Robertson. I like to read but works on philosophy are not high on my list. However, I’ve been troubled by how many in higher office treat science and knowledge with disdain. They act if their goal is to drag us back into the Middle Ages. I struggle to understand why this is so which caused me to pick up this book. If the Enlightenment led us out of the backwardness of the Middle Ages, it might be a template for how we should navigate today’s world. Oxford University Press has a series of small paperbacks called “A Very Short Introduction.” There are perhaps 200 titles. I read this book with enthusiasm but still struggled to understand the topic. Here’s what I came up with: The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement characterized by certain ideas but also a commitment to engaging with a wider public of readers. Enlightenment thinkers had a complex attitude towards religion. They weren’t anti-religion but they were committed to toleration, mostly because of the devastating religious wars that had been fought across Europe. They sought a new, modern understanding of the place of human beings in the world and to better the human condition for all people. Enlightenment thinkers sought to understand society, the economy, religion and politics. They made the “public sphere” – places like coffee houses – more important, and contributed to a vibrant print culture that greatly increased the number of books written, printed and read.

Article: “Let the Sun Shine. It’s a Matter of When.” New York Times, August 4, 2026. The push to adopt year-round daylight savings time seems to be gaining momentum. There are also contrary movements to have year-round standard time, or to keep things the way they are now. This article explores the consequences of each of the three options. Long ago, time was set by the position of the sun. When the sun was directly overhead, that marked noon. That worked pretty well when no one ever traveled beyond the village of their birth but in the modern world, having time unsynchronized from place to place would be chaotic. However, since humans evolved long before today’s complex world, we don’t respond well to these artificial shifts in time so experts agree that none of these systems are perfect. It seems each is supported by a specific interest group: public health officials would keep the current system despite its flaws; business people who seek customers want year-round daylight savings to extend the amount of light at the end of the day; and educators and children’s health advocates would rather have more light in the morning. To help you make up your own mind, here’s an illustration of how the proposed changes would affect us here in Massachusetts:

Under our current system, mid-winter on January 15 brings sunrise at 7:13 AM and sunset at 4:36 PM, while mid-summer on July 15 sees sunrise at 5:19 AM and sunset at 8:22 PM.

If Massachusetts adopted Year-Round Daylight Saving Time, winter evenings would gain an extra hour of light—pushing the January 15 sunset to 5:36 PM—but mornings would remain dark far longer, delaying winter sunrise until 8:13 AM. (Summer times would remain unchanged at a 5:19 AM sunrise and 8:22 PM sunset).

Conversely, under Year-Round Standard Time, summer evenings would lose an hour of twilight—pulling the July 15 sunset back to 7:22 PM—and summer sunrises would occur at an unusually early 4:19 AM, well before most people awaken. (Winter times would remain unchanged at a 7:13 AM sunrise and 4:36 PM sunset).

L’Etoile – A Star on Prince Street: Chapter 1

Two years ago, Louise Peloquin began sharing excerpts from L’Etoile, a French-language newspaper published in Lowell from 1881 to 1957. At my urging, she has agreed to compile some of her previous posts with added contextual information into a book manuscript to be called, L’Etoile: A Star on Prince Street. Starting this week, Louise will present draft chapters from the book in serial form here on the blog. Today, we have Chapter 1.

Richard Howe

L’Etoile – A Star on Prince Street

Chapter 1 – The Star’s Course

By Louise Peloquin

Twenty-two French-language newspapers were published in Lowell between 1881 and 1957 and, from 1975 to 1995, Le Journal de Lowell revived the French publication tradition. Among the three hundred-odd French newspapers published in New England since the second half of the 19^th century, the most widely circulated was Lowell’s L’Etoile (The Star).

Maxime Lépine managed L’Etoile, founded in March 1886 by Le Cercle Canadien of Lowell. In 1909, the New England Investment Company acquired L’Etoile and went bankrupt after a series of ambitious moves such as enlarging the newspaper format from six to seven columns, purchasing new printing presses and upgrading headquarters.

In 1910, the newspaper was auctioned off and purchased by Louis-A. Biron and colleague Paul Chaput, founder of the Courrier de Salem. They successfully transitioned L’Etoile from a weekly to a daily and established its reputation all over New England. In 1910, L’Etoile had approximately 60,000 subscribers.

Biron later became L’Etoile’s sole proprietor and manager. The paper adopted a modern, dynamic approach highlighting Lowell’s Franco-American culture and identity while including national as well as international news. Capturing Franco-American life was always L’Etoile’s main objective and asset.

Biron and his team boosted L’Etoile’s notoriety all across New England. The paper became a member of the L’Alliance des Journaux Franco-Américains (The Alliance of Franco-American newspapers) and of the New England Foreign Language Newspaper Association. Renown journalists Arthur Smith and Charles Daoust brought their French-language expertise. Firebrand newspaperman Wilfred Beaulieu interned at L’Etoile before founding Worcester’s Travailleur (Worker) in 1930. Edmond Turcotte served as editor-in-chief for eight years.

Writers such as Yvonne Lemaître, Louis-Alphonse Nolin and Joseph Laferrière offered literary contributions to the paper. Franco-American poet laureate Rosaire Dion-Lévesque published in L’Etoile. Antoine Clément, L’Etoile’s last editor-in-chief, distinguished himself by his passionate pleas in favour of maintaining Franco-American identity in Lowell and beyond.

The 24-26 Prince Street workshop printed many regional papers. Among them were the Courrier de Salem, the Courrier de Lawrence, the Journal de Lawrence, the Bulletin Français of Lynn, the Lynnois of Lynn and the Journal de Fitchburg.

In 1937, L’Etoile celebrated its golden jubilee. On this occasion, the Société Historique Franco-Américaine solemnly granted the newspaper and its editor-owner the Grand Prix medal.

In the 1940’s, constraints brought about by World War II hit L’Etoile considerably. Publication became triweekly. The newspaper celebrated its 60^th anniversary in 1946.

On August 17, 1957, L’Etoile, become biweekly, published its last issue.

During the June 1977 Franco-American Week, the city of Lowell paid homage to Louis-A. Biron by naming a French-language corner of the Pollard Memorial Library “Salle Louis-A. Biron” (Louis-A. Biron Room). The following plaque was put up on June 24, 1986:

1977

Salle Louis-A. Biron

Lowell City Library

Dedicated June 19th, 1977

To commemorate the contribution of the publisher of

L’Etoile  1886 – 1957

 Lowell’s French language daily newspaper

 Louis-Alphonse Biron

Né à Lotbinière Québec, en 1861. Débute à L’Avenir National de Manchester, N.H.

Fonde L’Impartial de Nashua, N.H. en 1898

Acquéreur de L’Etoile de Lowell en 1910

Décédé à Lowell en 1947

Respect and Remember: A journalist’s commitment to those who serve by Marjorie Arons-Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Years ago, when Martha Raddatz was Martha Bradlee, we were colleagues at WCVB-TV, Channel 5 in Boston — she in the newsroom chasing stories, I in the editorial department, commenting on the news from a safe distance. Millions now know her as chief global affairs correspondent for ABC News: the intrepid reporter embedded in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and, more recently, filing from Ukraine and covering Iran from Jordan— a serious newsperson of significant gravitas.

Her new book, The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose introduced me to someone I thought I already knew. It is a deeply moving collection of ordinary people who did extraordinary things in the worst circumstances war can invent, and who then dug deep to build meaningful lives out of what those circumstances left them.

From this extraordinary book, I came to see Martha as I have never have before, not only as a consummate professional but a person of deep courage, of loyalty, of profound humanity. She writes of warriors on the front lines: some pararescue jumpers or PJs, the Air Force medics who rescue wounded warriors, often at great risk to themselves; of doctors and nurses in a Baghdad Combat Support Hospital treating thousands of trauma patients; of Captain Rosemary Bryant Mariner, a tactical jet pilot who worked to enable fellow female aviators to fly in combat; of “skull cracker” Rocco Armonda, a retired U.S. Army neurosurgeon, who volunteered every year to operate in conflict zones on soldiers suffering ghastly traumatic brain injuries and, when on the home front, spent his free time soliciting donations of medical equipment, piling up in his garage, to send to Ukraine to help the grievously wounded have a chance at functional lives.

Martha’s focus includes the lives people lead after active duty.  First Lieutenant Mark Little, who had both his legs blown off when his vehicle was hit by an explosive device near Baghdad, Iraq. She was at the hospital the day he was brought in and later visited him at Walter Reed Hospital. Little, who also suffered burns and traumatic brain injury, would come to lead a full life, captain of the USA Warriors Ice Hockey Team, getting advanced education at George Washington University and executive leadership education at Harvard. He would devote himself to aiding other profoundly wounded to navigate the V.A. and other systems serving veterans.

She formed long-time bonds with a small group of soldiers who in 2004 survived a horrific attack in Iraq but were deeply scarred not only by what happened to their fatally wounded buddies but what they themselves did in response to the attackers, who were mingled with women and children.  This was at a time when PTSD was scarcely recognized as a war injury, leaving the friends to lean on each other, working to achieve resilience and meaningful lives after participation in a life-altering scene of carnage.

Raddatz, mother of two, was particularly drawn to certain Gold Star mothers, not just those whose children had died in war but to those who spent years nursing the fragments of human beings whom the armed forces had returned to them, never to be the same again.  She describes their unconditional love, coupled with the “most selfless sacrifice” she has ever witnessed.  These women, no less than their sons, are presented as heroes.

Along the way, we learn a lot about how our U.S. forces live their lives on and off the battlefield, and how the military life is a family affair.  Traveling regularly into volatile war-torn zones, Martha provides fact-based accounts of front-line tactics, support logistics, medical care, bureaucratic challenges, and, later, disproportionately high suicide rates.

A reader might reasonably infer that a reporter herself might suffer from PTSD after a quarter of a century of doing these stories. Why did she embark on this course? Raddatz offers one clue: she “grew up as a fatherless, scaredy-cat little girl” who, “even at a young age, … wanted to do something to change that.” But it seems so much more than that.

She never gets into the rationale for our nation’s embarking on the various “forever wars.” She never speculates on whether they were right or wrong.  Her focus is on the individuals who, from a sense of patriotic duty, give themselves (and their families) over to the mission. She credits Tom Brokaw’s masterful WWII book “The Greatest Generation” and  Steven Spielberg’s later films creating greater understanding of that era’s defining wars. But her explicit goal is to celebrate the lives of unsung heroes in wars that may have had less clarity but still boiled down to individuals motivated, after 9/11, by their passion for service and resilience in caring for those who gave every last measure of their devotion.

Raddatz declares herself “a better person for knowing them.”  A lesser journalist might tell such intimate stories in an exploitive way. The lifelong relationships she has developed with many of the subjects keeps her from falling into that reportorial trap.

There are up to two million active duty personnel at home and abroad, much less than one percent of the population. (Another 2.6 million are family members.)  Just over six percent of Americans have ever served in the military, many of them from families with a tradition of military service.  So, for the vast majority of us for whom those serving in the military has too often been a column of statistics, or a line item in an unfathomable DOD budget, we come away knowing the real lives behind the numbers. I keep returning to Rocco Armonda’s garage — the retired Army neurosurgeon quietly stacking donated equipment to ship to the wounded in Ukraine, asking no one to watch. That is the book: heroism with no audience. Prepare to be moved.