[Leica] Boston LUGgers: Lawrence, Massachusetts

["Phong" <phong@metrowerks.com>]

I am moving to a new office in North Andover, Mass,
just across the Merrimack river from Lawrence.  I drove
into Lawrence a couple of weeks ago, and found a vastly
different universe from much of Eastern Massachusetts,
with the possible exception of Fall River.  The place is
totally depressed, economically speaking, and yet there
is much beauty around.  Anybody knows anybody in the 
area ?  I would like to learn my way around from someone
who knows.

The city reminds of parts of North Eastern Pennsylvania 
where I lived 25 years ago, (depressed coal mine country), 
only made worse by the proximity of affluent Boston and the 
surrounding yuppytowns.  It also reminds me of parts
of Reading, PA (hello Jim Shulman !)  in the late '70s,
where my mother ran a convenient store at the corner of North 2nd 
and Washington street, with a fairly obvious petty drug trade going on.  
Over the course of the years, she had to replace the store windows 
a couple of times because of gun shots from local gangs.   I was 
a social worker for the Catholic Charities for a couple of summer while 
in graduate school (had a couple of very satifying projects - good for 
my soul kinda projects), and worked on cases of people working on the 
mushroom farms (mostly non English speaking immigrants)  living in 
such destitute conditions that I couldn't believe I was in America.  
(I was just "fresh off the boat" a few years prior).     

I digress again.   Lawrence, anyone ?

- - Phong

P.S.  Speaking of Reading, I highly recommend the Rabbit series from John Updike;  
a side pleaure is to read Updike's  description of the area at that time with such 
vivid details;  I could feel the warm wind blowing up from the Schuylkill river 
on summer nights.  I later found out that Updike _was_ from Reading (well Shillington).




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