Career Choices for my Brother Bob and me in September 1957 -Part #1
Across the land, times were good, again, for many Americans as President Eisenhower and Vice-President Nixon guided us to new heights of prosperity. In the world of music, much was happening to encourage our teenagers to rock and roll for instant happiness.
Elvis Presley
It seems that Elvis Presley was “All Shook up” and Pat Boone was “Writing Letters in the Sand” while The Diamonds we’re searching for someone called “Little Darlin’”. And, all this national mirth helped to turn our heads while General Motors rolled out the Chevy Belaire Nomad with the large, rear fins. Watch out for those sharp fins!
Chey Belaire Nomad
The days of milk and honey were upon us. Well, such was not quite the case for those second-generation immigrants of all varieties – Greek, Polish, Irish, Portuguese, Russian- Jewish, Franco-American, and others – that were still feeling wounded and lost after Lowell’s textile industry had packed its bag in the mid-1950s to look for cheap land and cheaper labor in the states of North and South Carolina.
From an industrial investor’s viewpoint, it must have been clear that lower state taxes, more modern, industrial equipment plus fewer labor disputes spelled a better return on investment, ROI, in the South than in Lowell and New England in general.
Lowell textile workers essentially were no longer economically viable or valued. The bottom had been ripped out from under their feet. Was there no warning?
It was like a community punch in the gut. My father and many other hired hands that had barely hung into the fray during the Depression years and after WWII suddenly found themselves on the proverbial trash heap of humanity – up the creek without a paddle.
Could such an economic disaster have been avoided?
Were the immigrants speaking no English, for the most part, simply irresponsible and without the necessary preparation to quickly fit into this new world? Maybe, the investors, movers, and shakers behind this Early Massachusetts Miracle, were unwilling to invest in the social education of their lowly workers?
For example, where were the industrial, work-study programs similar to those existing in Germany since the days of Bismark ~ 1872 when we in Spindle City needed them here in the US of A? The skies were gray, indeed.
Perhaps, the City Council and Lowell’s mayors were hesitant to assist these new workers to transition into higher factors of production, which might have required special training in the use of electromechanical machinery plus a city tax to defray the additional expenses.
A City Tax for Industrial Training?
Where would the money come from to finance such a novel concept?
But, where were the responsible parties in this tangled, socioeconomic, human drama, which, for the new Franco-Americans, had started back in the Great Quebec Exodus of 800,000 to 900,000 (estimates vary greatly) persons in the 1865 to 1920 time period?
Focusing, also, on the plight of other ethnic, mill worker groups, special attention needs to be focused on individuals from the two, other, most populous worker groups, namely, the Irish and Greek subgroups.
Different Groups of Immigrants
Historically speaking, Irish immigrants arrived first on the local scene during Lowell’s initial, canal-building days (1805 to 1830) when the Northern Canal (Pawtucket Canal) was financed and installed by the investors at Boston Associates.
This navigable, man-made waterway permitted Boston merchants to trade with factories and businesses located on the upper Merrimack River such as Concord, Manchester, and Nashua in New Hampshire plus Lowell in Massachusetts.
The number of operatives from Polish, Italian, Rumanian, Jewish, Belgian, Lithuanian or other ethnic groups were less numerous but, nevertheless, significant in terms of maintaining the city’s workplace vitality.
These diverse groups blended into the then lackluster landscape of Lowell’s struggling textile factories during WWI and the very long Depression years. Municipal and fiscal instability plus severe unemployment became the city’s background theme.
Maybe, these bleak conditions were the source of the famous saying that “The sky is falling”? Maybe, Chicken Little was right?
Certainly, there was no joy in our Mudville on the Merrimack until, curiously enough, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor awakened the nation to a serious, new war footing. However, the drama never ended there.
End of Part #1