But Anyone Can Start Today and Make A New Ending
HOME SWEET HOME
It felt good being home -- walking around the city I love, visiting my old friends and stomping grounds, dinning at the local dives that managed to survive the city’s re-emergence into the national spotlight, and admiring all the changes the city underwent: new buildings, the old decrepit mills having undergone renovations and now stand as museums and elegant condominiums, and the overall appreciation the local populace feels for their city’s place in American history. I loved walking down Hildreth Street, in Centralville, the area of Lowell in which I was raised. Its appearance, clearly marked with the smears of modernization -- energy efficient windows, the connection of outdoor and indoor spaces, and the use of natural light -- the old neighborhood no longer seemed to be that old. Maureen’s, a local convenient store, no longer existed; something unfamiliar occupied the lot. McPherson Park, my childhood playground where I earned a reputation for causing a great deal of deviltry, resembled a place in which the children of the city’s wealthy frolicked, partook in Saturday afternoon polo practice, and learned the ins and outs of their fathers’ Fortune 500 companies: it was not the rundown safety hazard of my youth. And despite all the radical changes – all of which I, undoubtedly, confess was for the best – I reveled in my unaccustomed journey down memory lane.
JUST SOME FACTUAL INFORMATION
Nestled along the tranquil banks of the Merrimack River, Lowell is a city rich in history, culture, & innovation. Established as an industrial community-containing a massive complex of mills-by the 1840’s Lowell had become the industrial center of the United States of America. Initially, the city’s prospects of employment attracted the daughters of poor rural farmers from all over New England, Quebec & Nova Scotia, Canada. But due to the instability of several European job markets, waves upon waves of immigration crashed upon the shores of the United States, causing the ethnic makeup of Lowell’s labor force to diversify.
My family & I moved to Lowell when I was roughly six-years-old, renting a rather small apartment on Hildreth Street in the now defunct Mayflower Apartments, in the Centralville neighborhood of the city. We had moved to the Mill City from Boston after my father, a common laborer, had scored a job with an emerging computer company called Wang Laboratories. The job offered a drastic increase in pay &, coupling this with the fact that the cost of living was much cheaper in Lowell than in Boston, my parents jumped on the opportunity to improve our financial positioning. We lived on & off in the Mayflower Apartments until I was roughly nineteen. My parents tried so desperately to situate my sister & I in a better environment, but the cost of living outside of the Mayflower proved to be too costly.
My father remained employed with Wang Laboratories for quite some time; however, when the company finally went out of business in the 1990s, he, like so many others, found themselves having to start all over late in life. With no other industry in the city to turn to for employment, my father turned towards the smaller businesses in the city finding work as a maintenance chief with the Hilton, a courier with Life Savior Inc., & a night security guard for the mills. Even with three jobs under his belt, my parents earned just enough to provide my sister & I with the basics-food, housing, & clothing. And you know what? This was perfectly fine with me. To this day, I swear to God I had the best childhood ever!
Surrounded by a bustling, multi-cultural workforce, a lively student body at the University of Massachusetts (Lowell), & multi-ethnic community, Lowell is where I formulated many of my ideas; was introduced to worker’s rights, Socialism, political & social activism; began to deplore war, racism, & all forms of intolerance; & developed a passion for reading as well as traveling. |
email me
add as friend
Comments for nomorewars about Lowell