Lowell: Immigrant town on Merrimack River had all the answers
Photos from my Mom's Camera
For many years before my mother-to-be, Claire Charbonneau, became my mother, Claire Bolduc, she managed to take a large number of black and white Kodak impressions of Lowell’s environs.
fauna and flora that graced the streets and alleys of our hometown. Shown below, the viewer will appreciate the broad wisdom of her choices. Many of these photos had appeared before my young eyes years in much loved albums before I even knew enough to wonder how these individuals even mattered in my own life at the time.
Pepere Charbonneau at Hampton Beach. Beach scenes in summer and winter played a key role in understanding the psyche of the Bolducs and Charbonneaus.Who were these intrepid beachcombers of old?Were all French-Canadian relatives and friends this attractive? Isn’t that young girl of age 13, maybe, just a sweetheart? A brave mix of persons with a Clermont, Charbonneau and Bolduc family name. Time: mid to late 1930s.Alexander (Ben) Bolduc looking good at a family get together of Clermonts and Charbonneaus.Tante Florence outside the outhouse (two-seater, I recall) at our summer camp at Lakeview in 1942 (?)Post card memory of someone’s trip to D.C. Tanta Florence, Gerry’s wife, looking beautiful as always!The Clermonts (Memere Charbonneau is looking on) at the other swimming spot – not Lakeview.A wider views helps to identify the players.Uncle Lucien (Colonel Bolduc) – a photo that I took in front of our Ludlam Street home ~ 1947 (?) In 1938, Ben and Claire became husband and wife. Somehow, the love does not shine through from this pre-war photo.
Some of these photos appear also elsewhere in these files, but some are shown again to highlight the often grey-white candor of the times.
Aunt Florence, la jeune, entertaining us on the second story porch of our tenement on Endicott Street. We see a portion of he Endicott-White intersection below.Tante Florence preparing the couch covering at our second story porch scene on Endicott St. Gerard et Florence – un couple qui s’aimait vraiment, il me semble. Tante Florence, la vieille, Dad’s aunt taken from our second story porch overlooking White Street. Dad is peeking out from behind her.
Why was Dad not in the photo standing by her tante Florence? There are unspoken mysteries everywhere we turn in life, it seems.
Brother Bob also attended the graduation ceremonies for our cousin Arthur Bolduc at the French Church on Middlesex St.
These old photos keep on flowingfrom the deep past to the living present. “Tout est entrelacé dans la vie. C’est bien comme ça, vous savez!“
Pepere and Memere Charbonneau in front of their house (rental?) on Fisher Street in Centralville around 1912, They are standing with Albert, Lida, Claire (my Mom) and Gerard (Uncle Gerry) . Note the Sunday clothes worn for the photo and the controlling stance of Pepere with his distinct watch fob of the period. Memere looks a bit sad while the smallest person in the photo, Claire Charboboutnneau, may be smiling a little. About two years later, Memere died of tuberculosis in this very same house.
h
Who dared stand in the way of Claire Charbonneau when she was twenty or so? The 1930s had a lot to offer to that generation that could swish down Moxie without a grimace. Mussolini’s big, fat empty boots didn’t scare these young people!
