This morning, I drove up to Lowell with a friend so I could be her "patient" for her nursing exam. She is training to work in a nursing home, so I got to lie in a bed while she pretended to clean my dentures. Then she was assigned to roll me onto my side and surround me with comfy pillows so I could take a nice nap. By the end of exam, I was so comfortable that I really did want to take a nap, but alas, the next student was waiting to take her test, so I had to say goodbye to the pillows.
Earlier, while we were still waiting our turn for the exam, I decided to take a little tour of the city. Lowell is the fourth largest city in Massachusetts (by population), and as the spindles on the sign imply, it owes its early growth to . . .
. . . lots of textile factories . . .
. . . powered by canals that channeled part of the Merrimack river through the city. Now ducks are the only ones using the canals . . .
. . . but the city is still a thriving metropolis that is home to a university, a thriving art scene, and some stunning architecture.
I ended up hanging out at the library for a while before walking back to the exam site. I like to think that the Civil War cavalryman carved onto the outside of the tower is Colonel Charles Lowell III, a Massachusetts soldier who my dad really admired. While Charles wasn't directly related to Francis Cabot Lowell (the businessman for whom this city was named), a man of Charles' character would be right at home on the wall of a library, where future generations could continue looking up to him, in every sense.
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