May 16th, The Situation is the Boss

The Situation is the Boss.  Of course, those words aren’t mine.  So whose are they?  Google is your friend here.  Anyway, those words definitely applied to today.  We were up early because we had an appointment at the local Chevy dealer because little Graybeard decided to throw another hissy fit.  While we were in Boston a few days back the check engine light came on.  Since we have a free OnStar subscription we gave them a call.  They dialed in and back came the response, you have an emissions related issue.  Oh yea, just what the doctor ordered.

Up early, we headed into Bangor, first to McDonald’s for a nice steak, egg and cheese bagel and a specialty coffee. Much easier to let them cook when we have to be out early in the morning and the coffee pot has died.  Breakfast over we headed down the street to the Chevy dealer.

All I can say is what a wonderful bunch of people.  They took the car right in, about an hour later they came out with the news nothing to worry about we have service bulletin that addresses your issue, we’ll have you out in no time.  True to their word they fixed the problem, cleared the code, and we had them do an oil change  and rotate the tires as well and away we went.  Super service from a super nice bunch of people at Quirk Chevy.

Before we begin todays topic of discussion, I want to go back for a minute to the American Revolution and in particular to that fateful day of April 19, 1775. Someone commented that as bad as it was for those men that day that stood and faced the British Regulars it had to be just as bad for their wives and families.  That brought to mind one tragic story that highlights just that sentiment.

Hannah Davis, nursing a sick child watched her husband Isaac march away from their home around 7 am on April 19, 1775.  Three hours later he came home dead delivered in a cart.  He and Abner Hosmer were shot dead by British Regulars at North Bridge.  Yes, everyone suffered during the American Revolution.

OK, today we’re going to talk about another type of Revolution.  This time we’re going to spend some time learning a bit about the Industrial Revolution that began in the 19^th century and how it impacted the city of Lowell Massachusetts.

We began our journey of discovery at the Lowell National Historical Park.

Lowell is considered the Cradle of the American Industrial Revolution as it was the first large-scale factory town in the country.

The history of Lowell is closely tied to its location along the Pawtucket Falls of the Merrimack River.  Once an important fishing ground for the Pennacook  Indian tribe the river later provided water power for the factories that formed the basis of the city’s economy for a century. The city of Lowell was started in the 1820s as a money-making venture and social project referred to as “The Lowell Experiment”, and quickly became the United States largest textile center.

The industrial revolution was brought to America by a British-born merchant, Samuel Slater, who built the first successful cotton spinning mill in America in Rhode Island, and also by an American merchant, Francis Cabot Lowell, who built the first integrated cotton spinning and weaving facility in America in Massachusetts.

Lowell, who was born in Newburyport, Mass, in 1775, was a successful merchant who visited England in 1810, at the age of 36, and was so impressed by the British textile mills that it inspired him to start his own mills.

In 1813, Lowell and several partners formed the Boston Manufacturing Company and introduced a power-loom, based on the British model, that had been tweaked with many technological improvements.

The company built a large brick mill next to the Charles River in Waltham, Massachusetts that incorporated various technologies to convert raw cotton into cloth. The mill integrated the chain of tasks under one roof, known as the Lowell System. This system was later adopted across the country and became the basis of the American manufacturing system.

By 1840, the factories in Lowell employed at some estimates more than 8,000 textile workers, commonly known as mill girls or factory girls. … The Lowell mills were the first hint of the industrial revolution to come in the United States.

A model of what Lowell with its miles of mills looked like in the 19th century.

The town of Lowell went through many different stages, from boom to bust, and then a rebirth of sorts which it is going through today.

The sign of the end, an empty weave room floor, machinery gone for good.

Consequences of the downturn.

Lowell in the process of rebirth today.

So that is a brief history of the city of Lowell.  As for what a day in the mills was really like and what a typical boarding house for mill girls was like we’ll cover that tomorrow.

Time now to call it a wrap.  Day is gone and oh yea, stars are in the sky, stars, millions of them, stars like I can never remember seeing them before.  Sure they have been there all the time, but oh what I’ve missed in years pass.  Such simple but profound beauty in the night sky.  May I ever be more tuned in to the world around me from this time forth.

We’ve had another great day.  The day started out with the situation dictating what we had to do, it was for a moment the boss and all we could do was go with the flow.  Yet, as always we did it together, traveling along hand in hand, singing our song.  We hope you had a great day as well.  Hey, in closing I have something a bit humorous for us tonight in the form of a road sign, take a look:

So that’s it for now.  As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.  Thanks again for sharing our day with us.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before