Lowell: Immigrant town on Merrimack River had all the answers
Photos#2: Dad, Mom, Mémère Bolduc, Bob, Michelle & Paul
My Mom left us with a bulging basket of favorite photos dating back to the days of the mid-1920s, i.e., after the tragic period of the Spanish Flu but before the great economic/business, Wall Street collapse in October, 1929.
Alexander (Ben) Bolduc, our father, captured in this photo the lean and mean qualities needed for raw survival in the big city of soon-to-be-empty textile and leather-working mills.This son of a postal clerk letter carrier going back to the 1906 time frame, when he was naturalized XXX.
Dad’s attitude regarding basic survival skills needed while living among Lowell’s multiple layers of poor, often under-educated , non-English speakers that all shared a common background that can poetically be described as: “Born aday late and a dollar short” remained steadfast and grimly determined over the brief number of years (43) of his existence. Those, who adapt themselves to changing and dismal employment conditions, must consider becoming a part-time taxi driver, butcher, undertaker’s corpse-pickup-guy (Ouellette’s Funeral Parlor), in addition to being a mill rat at the Navy Yards located at the corner of Lakeview Avenue and Riverside Road.
Dad’s Brother, Walter Bolduc, at his Son Arthur’s H.S. Graduation
This was taken in 1947, I believe, when I would have been about eight years old and Michelle about two. Note that she seems older than two in this photo. Also note that she is already wearing glasses and that Uncle Walter is holding a cigarette. Dad’s ill health is quite apparent here when this picture is compared to one taken years before his truck accident that had left him with a double hernia. In those days, a hospital surgery to correct the hernia damage was out of the question financially, so the patient had to grin and bear it.
In 1938, Alex Bolduc and Claire Charbonneau entered the state of matrimony and soon thereafter found a second-story apartment on upper Merrimack St. located diagonally cross the street from St-Joseph Hospital. Unfortunately, the photo is a bit too dark, but it might be an exaggeration to even suppose that these two persons appear happy. Dad appears thin and trim and Mom seems uncertain and apprehensive. What future awaits these two slightly broken survivors of the Great Depression? Could they have chosen another life to lead with happiness and contentment more certain?
Cousin Arthur lived with his parents in the Highlands. Here, he is pictured at his H.S. graduation.
Arthur’s graduation was an important family event as this photo taken at Notre Dame Church illustrates That handsome Arthur is sporting some fancy new clothes and a jacket garnished with a flower corsage it seems. Mémère Bolduc with her fancy pocketbook is all decked out with a fresh hairdo and that elegant chapeau. Bob and I, in contrast, are not dressed to the nines, but rather are proud of our daily duds. And, what about those suspenders, folks? You couldn’t buy those at Russell’s Men Store in Centralville! That was Bon Marche quality, for sure.
Claire Charbonneau in her youth
Another Loring photo keepsake for our collection – Mom, when she was x years old? The broach that she is wearing may have had special meaning associated with this photo. This is the collector’s frustration when dealing with an original photograph that might have been originally mounted in a photo-frame years before. A cropped photo of young Bobbi extracted from that now famous photo taken at Arthur’s H.S. graduation.
According to Bugs Bunny, That’s all for now, folks!
