Lowell Sun Clippings from 1900s to 1950s – random selection

One can obtain a flavor of daily life in Lowell during any chosen period by randomly perusing the pages of the Lowell Sun during that time period of interest. Through the following time snippets of events tabulated by our home time newspaper in the 1900s thru early 1950s, one can begin to appreciate the emotional highlights, downturns and successes that made our days in that period so important to us. Please sit back and try to remember those days of yore.

Note: Public Works Administration (PWA), was part of the New Deal of 1933
Above: These were incredibly hard times for many folks – not only the investors in the physical economy.
Unhappy campers from the bonus army in 1932
For many people, even school teachers, daily life had lost its meaning.
The Greek population in the city played, over the decades, a most important role in keeping the Hellenistic immigrant elements of Lowell in fine stead.
Not everyone living in the city was working at a job in the city. Sometimes, people would form carpools to travel together to a job site out of town.
Who could pass up a slice of Pound Cake?
Was this Teddy Roosevelt’s cake that my Mom somehow managed to bring to our humble abode?

Memories and photos have become so interrelated that decades today seem to fuse into interwoven layers of reality. What is this pastiche of memorabilia?

Connecticut-Case-Murder-and-Suicide-
Unhappiness in a career direction leads to a murder-mystery in our back yard. Some $19,000,000 mischief was involved.
A Slave-State debate is happening as Archbishop Richard J. Cushing examines child welfare increases. Is this proposal the makings of socialized medicine?

Beware of totalitarian, AKA socialized, medicine!

It is nor clear to the author of these vignettes just how a proposed insurance plan designed to better the lives of distressed street urchins can be construed as the first dangerous step toward totalitarianism and socialized medicine as found in the Soviet Union. But, such was the debate in the Archbishop’s circle of friends when I was still a Luddite in the ways of social justice.

Successful Lowell business men gathered in the countryside to admire their automobiles before the Great Depression took hold.
Successful Lowell business men gathered in the countryside to admire each others’ automobiles before the Great Wall Street Crash took hold.

My grandfather, Paul T. Charbonneau of East End Dairy, is standing by his vehicle (furthest to the left) while six other proud owners display their financial success. Those were the days, my friend, and they all thought that they would never end!

Maybe, the days before World War II were just a bit more pleasant for some folks in the Lowell area?

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