RichardHowe.com – Voices from Lowell & Beyond

Lowell Recites “A Visit From St. Nicholas”

In December 2012, fifty-six people from Lowell, Massachusetts combined to recite “A Visit From St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore. Here’s the result:

Living Madly: The God of Doors

Living Madly: The God of Doors

By Emilie-Noelle Provost

One of my father-in-law’s favorite sayings was: There’s always the unexpected. No matter how carefully our plans are laid out, or how much we might want a particular thing to happen, or not, the possibility that something unforeseen will derail our desires is ever-present. Most people, including me, find this fact unsettling. Knowing what’s likely to happen in a given situation is comforting, while change, even when expected, can provoke fear and uncertainty.

But change can also bring fortune to those who choose to embrace it. Losing a predictable but dead-end job creates an opportunity to land a better role at a different company, or perhaps to change careers. Ending an unhappy relationship with a spouse or partner makes it possible to start over again with someone new.

Anyone familiar with tarot cards knows that the Death card, which often depicts the Grim Reaper riding a horse over the body of a king, rarely implies physical death. When this card shows up in a reading, it usually signifies a significant and often abrupt ending of some kind. This change will likely be difficult, but will hopefully foster the self-awareness needed to pull oneself together and start again, armed with wisdom gained from experience. The king on the card implies that no one is exempt from Death’s whims: It’s far better to roll with the punches and learn how to regroup than to wallow in self-pity.

The ancient Roman god, Janus, has two faces. One looks forward into the future, the other, backward toward the past. He is the god of beginnings and endings, the god of change. Janus rules thresholds, gates, and doorways. He is present when someone is born, when someone dies, and during transitional events, such as weddings and graduations. The month of January is named for him.

To the Romans, Janus was the most powerful god of all. He was fate’s doorkeeper, and they did everything in their power to gain his favor. On New Year’s Day, the Romans were careful not to say anything derogatory about another person. They offered sweets and gifts of coins to strangers, abstained from foul language, and performed good deeds in hope of creating conditions that would encourage luck and prosperity in the coming year.

Change has been rampant and unforgiving for a lot of people over the last few years. The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be the most significant interrupter in modern times, upending jobs and marriages, travel plans, and the trajectory of nearly everyone’s lives.

In September 2020, my mother died after losing a battle with cancer. In 2021, our adult daughter moved out of our house into a home of her own. Over a four-month period in 2022, my husband and I lost three of our college friends to cancer as well. My father-in-law died of heart failure this past October.

These changes have been difficult, but most of them have led to new beginnings that give us hope for a happier future. After losing so many people to cancer, Rob and I have made exercising and eating well a priority, and we are both healthier than we have ever been. Our relationship with our daughter has evolved and grown stronger, and after years of mourning my mother, my stepfather is now in a new relationship with a woman who seems like a perfect fit for him.

We’re entering Janus’ season. In just a few short weeks, 2023 will be over and a new year will begin. In 2024, I’m hoping to submit a new book manuscript to my publisher. And after years of working for the same company, my husband has decided to look for a new job. There’s no way of knowing what might happen, but here’s to hoping that the God of Doors looks upon all of us with kindness.

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Emilie-Noelle Provost (she/her) is the author of The River Is Everywhere, a National Indie Excellence Award and American Fiction Award finalist, and The Blue Bottle, a middle-grade adventure with sea monsters. Visit her at emilienoelleprovost.com.

Fed up with Congress? Here’s one of the good guys! by Marjorie Arons Barron

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

Small wonder that public approval of Congress ranges between 13 and a scant 15 percent. The year started with chaos and the gelding of Speaker Kevin McCarthy after 15 marathon rounds of voting. It ends with the House commencing an evidence-free impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden, after spending three weeks defenestrating McCarthy, who may be best remembered for reneging on a bipartisan debt deal to fund the government.

With a stridently divided government , this session has been rated the least productive since the Great Depression. Obviously, nothing  has been done either on major issues like comprehensive immigration reform or even smart adjustments to border security. But little has been done on narrower issues like reforming energy project permitting or creating a regulatory framework for Artificial Intelligence. Of the paltry 22 bills passed, some were on such august matters as naming veterans clinics, issuing a commemorative coin on the anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps, and authorizing federal education funds to protect our hunting heritage.

House members, weary from their unproductive frenzy, have abandoned Washington for a three-week holiday, ignoring important defense needs in Ukraine, the Middle East, Asia, and our border. When they return, they will have only eight legislative days to avoid a government shutdown, certain to damage our barely recovered economy.

For most of the blame, you can thank the Republican Party, especially its loud-mouth, radical House Freedom Caucus, whose members would rather perform and preen than do the hard, out-of-the-limelight work of actually legislating. Even when Democrats grudgingly offer to compromise on important matters, Republicans can’t take yes for an answer.  Without any positive agenda of their own, their default position is to reject everything.

The Senate has teed up for a vote next week on Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and possibly border security. If they do, it’s doubtful that the House will return. This would never have happened in the last Congress, when Democrats made outstanding policy advances, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the significant help of Massachusetts’ own Congressman Jim McGovern, then the chair of the powerful Rules Committee.

At a Friday breakfast meeting with The New England Council, McGovern, now ranking (minority) member of the Rules Committee, lamented that this is a time when “trivial issues get debated passionately, and important issues get debated not at all.” McGovern praises Tom Cole (R-OK), now the chair of the Rules Committee, for his collegiality and attempts at thoughtful leadership. But both Cole and McGovern now face the fact that more than 40 percent of the Republicans on the Committee belong to the Freedom Caucus, who take full advantage of committee rules to gum up the works.  Even when the committee supports a rule to get legislation to the floor, the radicals oppose it. They want nothing to pass.    Period. Hard stop. The Caucus’s only interest is to pour gasoline on the fires of the culture wars, to follow Donald Trump’s agenda and orders, and to whack any remaining so-called moderate Republicans otherwise inclined to compromise.

Jim McGovern has been in public service his whole life. He began as an intern with George McGovern ( no relation) during a time when the South Dakota Senator would have regular and amicable lunch meetings with Sen. Barry Goldwater, his ideological opposite.   Before his election to Congress in 1996, the Worcester Democrat was a longtime aide to legendary Rules Committee chairman Joe Moakley, where he learned the skills of persuasion, strategic compromise, building trusted relationships, and achieving what is possible.

Jim McGovern deserves credit for his role in many of Biden’s hard-fought legislative victories, but now being in the minority, fighting fact-challenged and uncivil zealots, has been an other-worldly experience. Still, McGovern labors on.

He tried to preserve legislative rules that foster civil discourse. He lost. He fought the fantastical Biden impeachment inquiry. He lost. He sought compromise, again unsuccessfully, on immigration and border security. He now faces an uphill battle to keep the government operating beyond January, while the Freedom Caucus is hellbent on closing it down. Unlike other frustrated congressmen choosing retirement over fighting the good fight, McGovern is committed to fulfilling his role.

A self-described “peacenik” and a passionate advocate  for human rights globally, McGovern has embraced his role on the unsexy Agriculture Committee. There he has used his position to battle hunger and develop smart policies to improve nutrition programs that end up saving lives and taxpayer dollars. Those who have benefited from his efforts – children, the poor, the oppressed – don’t have powerful lobbyists, don’t contribute campaign dollars and don’t even vote, but he does it because it is the right thing to do.

I can’t believe I am quoting Henry Kissinger here, but he had it right when he said that “90 percent of politicians give the others a bad name.” Jim McGovern is one of the minority of good ones who most assuredly do not deserve the public’s scorn. We are lucky to have him, and we’ll be even luckier if the Democrats retake the House in 2024 and he resumes chairmanship of the Rules Committee.

Joyeux Noël

Joyeux Noël (PIP #12)

By Louise Peloquin

A meeting takes place in the long rectangular room where jacks-of-all-printing trades feed linotypes with a cornucopia of lead letters. They are working on important December issues – important because the holidays bring an abundance of ads, important especially because local events, duly illustrated by photos of happy Lowellians, take center stage.

War still rages across the pond in 1944 with many local “French boys” demonstrating their courage. Nonetheless, Noël remains a time of hope, a celebration of love incarnate.

Imagine the exchanges L’Etoile’s team could have had at 24-26 Prince Street….

Emile questions his boss as he steps out of his cubbyhole office.

“We’ve got quite a variety of advertisements this year Monsieur Biron. Illustrating them could attract the reader’s eye, don’t you think? Take O’Heir’s for instance. Even if times are tough, parents manage to make the little ones happy. Pardon my curiosity Monsieur. Any grandchildren in your household?”

Biron raises his head ever so slightly, opens his eyes wide and glances above the little round spectacles poised on the edge of his aquiline nose. His look is one of mirth.

“My children could be my grandchildren, Emile. Oh oui, you are curious indeed. But what harm is there in specifying that I entered the state of matrimony at 49? I was blessed with three children and was 60 when the youngest was born, ma très chère Marthe.”

Armand, a cousin of Biron’s wife, joins in.

“That name wasn’t popular when she was born. And it’s certainly not very musical. I always wondered why you chose it. No one in the family has it.”

“Chère cousin, haven’t you heard the story behind the name?”

Armand, looking a bit sheepish after his blunt comments, responded.

“No, I don’t recall.”

Biron pursued, his eyes glittering with amusement.

“Since my July birthday falls on the feast of Sainte Marthe, Marie chose it to honor le nouveau Papa. At first I questioned the choice but, upon reflection, I thought it had a strong, solid sound to it. And so Marthe it was. But let us get to the tasks at hand. Printing presses have no patience when they are hungry for the latest news. Emile, won’t you show me the advertisements please?”

Emile hands his boss a series of sketches.

“Here’s one for the toys, simple but attractive. Here’s La Caisse Populaire Jeanne D’Arc’s Noël message, and, of course, the one you wrote for us, for L’Etoile.”

Biron skimmed over the advertisements and nodded his approval. He was not a man to flash smiles. Perhaps he did not want others to examine his tobacco-yellowed teeth. Perhaps he wanted to maintain a distant air. None of that was consequential because his colleagues always grasped his non verbal messages. The curl of the lips, the widening of the eyes, the lift of the chin, so many indications of approval or lack thereof.

Biron continued.

“Let me see the local news reports. Big or small, we shall publish them all. Charles has taken quite a few photos. Everyone likes to discover who is in the paper, isn’t that so?  But first, would you bear with me while I read the beginning of my Noël editorial? Your observations are precious. Putting out a newspaper is a collective endeavour and everyone’s voice needs to be heard. The text begins like this:

At December’s decline…

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L’Etoile December 7, 1944

Toys of All Kinds

Fun for the little ones                      Soft stuffed animals

brightly-painted rocking horse.         Teddy bears, small and large, calico       

$1.98                                                 dogs and cats. For little children

                                                          and for big sister’s collection.

                                                          $1.69 and more

BOARD, Practical….

amusing and useful for school homework         $1.39

CONSTRUCTION BLOCKS                                      Jeeps……..$1.89

well-sanded, hard maple,                                           Other toys with wheels,

many possible designs….. $1.98 and more.              trucks, trailers, etc.

A.E O’Heir Co.

Hurd Street …Just around the corner from Central Street

117 Central Street.                                               Opposite the Strand Theatre

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L’Etoile December 8, 1944

High School skating party

     Here is the organization committee of the grand skating party held at the Rex last Tuesday evening, the most successful up to now, under the auspices of Saint Joseph’s High School. We saw the largest crowd on roller skates in the city under the direction of the following committee. First row from left to right, Miss Laura Bernard, Miss Thérèse Bouvier, Miss Cécile Biron, secretary; Miss Alice Mogé, vice-president. Second row, Miss Doris Albert, Miss Louise Dupont, president, Reverend Father Paul-Emile Marquis, o.m.i. (1), Miss Anne Mercer and Miss Claire Sawyer, treasurer.

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L’Etoile December 8, 1944

Jeanne-Mance Christmas Party (2)

_________

Madame Raymond Barrette, directress of the December 14th party.

     Mrs. Raymond Barrette will be directress of the Cercle Jeanne-Mance annual Christmas party to be held on December 14th at 7:30 p.m. at the Catholic Ladies halls. Mrs. Barrette will be assisted by Mrs. Albina Skalkeas, Mrs. Josephine Pinard and Mrs. Wilfred Achin for the general preparations and by program directress Mrs. Armand Plon.

     Aspiring members, whose induction will take place in January, will be the guests of honor at this event. New members include Mrs. Bertha Girard, Mrs. Rose A. Martin, Miss Lucille Labrie. Mrs. Franck Martin, Mrs. Antoinette Dupuis, Mrs. Wilde Chaput, Mrs. Dora Dubois, Miss Marguerite Lyons, Miss Mary Lyons, Miss Thérèse Thibaudeau, Miss Violette Dubois, Miss Jeanne Stoney, Miss Pauline Laflamme, Miss Gertrude Jussaume.

     In view of the distribution of gifts by the Cercle’s Father Christmas, each member will have to bring a twenty-five cent gift. A buffet of snacks will close the soirée.

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L’Etoile December 22, 1944

A Christmas Party at Saint Jeanne d’Arc

     The Saint Jeanne d’Arc Guard had its Christmas party on Tuesday evening in the parish hall on Fourth Avenue under the direction of Miss Jalibert, of teacher M. Letendre and of Reverend Father Alphonse Houde, o.m.i., chaplain. Numerous parents and friends were present with their children to whom Father Christmas (Miss Irène Tallard) distributed gifts. There was also a show on stage, snacks and a film projection. We can see, from left to right, Jackie Lemaître, Esther Carrigan, Judith Bourgeois, Mrs. Gagnon, Lorraine Béland, Father Christmas (Miss Irène Tallard), Thérèse Tellier, sitting on Father Christmas’s lap, Pauline Elie, Constance Chandonnet, Rita Sawyer, Rosemary Labrecque and Pauline Leblanc.                                           

Photo    Charles Landry

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L’Etoile December 22, 1944

May happiness be at your Christmas table and bring you peace and prosperity during the year to come!

Jeanne d’Arc Credit Union

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L’Etoile December 22, 1944

NOËL

     At December’s decline, as the lengthening days begin to bring us, in slow steps, towards the months of light, the sweet feast of Christmas sings to our souls the rebirth of a God on earth.

     This solemnity is one of the oldest to be celebrated in the entire universe. Nineteen centuries have passed since the Great Night when the God made Man was born and the memory lives in the hearts of all Christians as the greatest event on earth and in heaven. Nineteen centuries have passed and humanity still hears the voice of the angels announcing that its Savior is born.

     Noël! It is the great religious feast, it is the coming of the promised Savior. This historical fact, old and ever new, fills the Christian world with joyful gladness and supreme peace. All believing peoples of the earth gather in crowds at the cradle of the God-Child they adore with the utmost respect. This “glad tiding,” divine in origin, applies to all times and is addressed to all men and women of good will. Its power on hearts is as sweet, as bountiful and as admirable as it was when it first illuminated the world with its marvellous light of celestial hope.

     Noël creates an atmosphere of goodness which cannot accommodate to the social animosity which divides individuals, families, peoples and nations. Countries, not more than men and women, will not find happiness in wars, struggles and dissension between different classes, in other words, in the upheaval of everything that Christ preached and which is summarized by “Love one another.” Was not this teaching the confirmation of what the voices repeated on the mysterious night of Christmas while proclaiming the glory of God: “Peace on earth to men and women of good will.”

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L’Etoile December 22, 1944

To all of its subscribers, readers, announcers, correspondents and friends

L’ETOILE

wishes another Joyous Christmas of hope.

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1. Oblate of Mary Immaculate.
2. The Cercle Jeanne-Mance woman’s club, founded in 1931, held its 2023 Christmas party in December at Chelmsford’s Princeton Station restaurant.