Over that past few weeks, I have gone
out into Lowell to experience more of its culture and history. The
first place I visited to find out about the culture of Lowell was the
Boott Cotton Mills. The former mills were turned into a museum which
is now used to show what life in the mills was like back in the times
where they were producing cotton. The large red brick buildings that
lines the Merrimack river were first to make an impact on me, while I
was still on the walk over from my dorm. The mills are only about a
20 minute walk from my building on Umass Lowell's east Campus, so
walking along the river, and next to the mass of giant red brick mill
buildings gave me the opportunity to see the enormous scale that the
mills operated on.
Upon entering the building I realized
that it was much more about the appreciation of the tremendously hard
work that all of the people who worked in the mills, rather than the
actual mills and the things they produced. Much of the discussion in
the mills involved what the workers had to go through and the
terrible conditions they faced while trying to earn a living. The
museum definitely did what it set out to do in making it's visitors,
or at least me, realize what a struggle it was for the workers of the
mills to even survive, never mind do well enough to somehow be happy
with their lives. As far as I can see it, I'm thankful that I live in
this era, and never have to experience what many people had to go
through working in the mills.
The second place I visited to
experience more of the culture and history of Lowell was the American
Textile History Museum, which is also only about a 15 minute walk
from my dorm room, and draws a lot of similarities between itself and
the Boott Cotton Mills Museum. This museum was more focused on what
was actually produced in the mills, however. Textiles were Lowell's
claim to fame during the industrial revolution, and the reason it was
such an industrial powerhouse. While many people would assume that
the history of textiles would be one of the more boring topics
imaginable, I went in with an open mind and was delightfully
surprised by how interesting this museum actually was.
As soon as I walked in the doors, the
average looking building (on the outside) transformed in to a
stunningly beautiful space. There was a small breakfast cafe near the
entrance, tables for people to sit, and everything inside looked as
it had just been refurbished to perfection. This was certainly not
what I was expecting when I heard the words “American Textile
History Museum.” The next step past the entrance was the beginning
of the textile journey. It was a journey through exactly what the
title of the museum suggested, the history of textiles. From the poor
quality resources used to make textile hundreds of years ago, to the
mass manufacturing of textiles today, the museum detailed every
single era, invention, and breakthrough along the way. It went
thoroughly in depth about how textiles have been produced, and used
over the last few centuries. The presentation of the information was
fantastic and really grabbed my attention, allowing me to absorb all
of what the museum had to offer.
The third excursion I took into Lowell
was one to a local restaurant, The Lowell Beer Works, to visit a
meeting of a Lowell section Toastmasters club. The Toastmasters are a
club dedicated to helping people improve their public speaking
abilities through practice. The meetings are every Wednesday, at 7:00
pm, and run for about an hour and a half. The section my roommate
and I joined for the night consisted of about 25 people total, all of
whom were assigned a role to participate in some way or another. One
person was given the role of President for the night, and directed
the majority of the meeting, while others were given speeches to
prepare for during the week before. Another segment, called “table
talks”, allowed for every one to go up and speak about a random
subject that the president of the week had selected. Unfortunately, I
did not get to go up to speak during the table talk segment, but I
did get to introduce myself to every one at the meeting, which was
nice and made me feel welcome.
The meeting was a pleasant experience,
and I was surprised by how nice and welcoming all of the people were
who were there. Even though my roommate and I had never been to a
toastmaster's meeting before, we both felt very welcome, and wanted
to come back the next week for sure. Everyone at the meeting came up
to us and introduced themselves, making us both feel right at home,
when we expected to feel a little unconformable because of the fact
that we were two college kids attending something meant for adults,
typically, and would not know anyone there. To our surprise, this was
the exact opposite of what happened. Because I did not get a chance
to talk during the table talks segment, I got a special opportunity
at the end of the meeting to give a little description of how I
thought it went and what I thought of the club, if I thought I would
come back and things like that. It was a good chance for me to get
some practice with my own public speaking and was not as easy as it
sounded, especially when I had the attention of about 25 other
people focused directly on me. Over all, the experience was an
awesome one and I had a great time, I would definitely recommend it
to any one who has the time to take part in something like it. I have
not had the time to get back to another meeting yet, but I will be
sure to as soon as I have an open Wednesday night.
Through all of these experiences, and
trips to different places around Lowell, I have noticed a common
thread between all of them. Between these three, I noticed a
commonality of a transformation over time. The Boott Museum showed
directly what time had done to the mills of Lowell's industrial
revolution, as they had been turned into museums to show exactly what
the workers had to put up with long ago, and how today none of that
kind of treatment would be acceptable. The textile museum showed this
type of transformation directly as it showed the improvement of the
textile industry over time, the past few hundred years. The
Toastmasters club showed this in it's goal, to improve on people's
ability to do something like speak publicly, over a period of time
with practice. All three excursions showed me what time could do,
whether it was a long time in the sense of transforming an industry,
or a few weeks in transforming a person's talent.
