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Reader feedback: Positive, negative or in-between, it’s always welcome

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Aug 28, 2021

Dean Shalhoup

Reader feedback, I’ve always said, is a great thing to see in the inbox, hear on the phone or read in a cute little note card – especially if it’s written in old-school cursive.

And whether the message is one of praise, appreciation or a congratulatory nature, or critical, sarcastic, or nit-picky, perhaps with a snooty flavor, is much less important than the fact someone took the time to weigh in.

As we say in this business: “Critical feedback is way better than no feedback – at least people are reading my stuff!”

So, I was appreciative over the past couple of weeks to receive some feedback, not so much about stories or columns but regarding some of the historic photos we selected for our “From the Files” feature, for which we select a couple of oldies but goodies and describe them as best we can.

The first bit of feedback wasn’t about the historic photo feature, but regarding a story that appeared at the beginning of August that I put together from information sent our way by the folks at the National Streetcar Museum at Lowell, announcing the museum, closed for several months during the pandemic, was reopening on Saturdays and Sundays.

The original caption to this photo, which appeared online in early August, erroneously described this vehicle as a restored trolley, when in fact it wasn't restored but was built in the 1980s as a replica of the original turn-of-the-20th-century trolleys. (Photo courtesy of LIKELOWELL.COM)

Photos of some of the trolleys at the museum, which is affiliated with the popular Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, accompanied the announcement, so I grabbed a couple of the better ones to go along with the story.

A few days later, I received an email from John Petillo, a longtime volunteer at the Lowell and Kennebunkport museums, who very politely pointed out a handful of inaccuracies in the text and photo captions.

More about that later. First I’ll share emails and calls I received regarding two recent “From the Files” photos, the first of which depicted the 1952 edition of a women’s softball team sponsored by Sprague Electric, one of several teams in a league active in the 1940s and 50s.

Two readers weighed in on the photo, which was sent to us years ago by Pauline Jean Raymond, one of the players.

One was Terence Shea, who wrote that he “saw the flashback picture” in the July 25 paper and recognized his aunt, Agnes Richard.

The other came from Mike Yanuskevich, who recognized one of the two men – probably the coaches – in the picture.

His name is Peter G. Tamulonis, who graduated Nashua High in 1942 with Mike’s father. Tamulonis was also in Mike’s father’s wedding party, and later worked for the now-defunct Koppers tie plant, according to Mike.

A more recent “From the Files” photo – it appeared in last week’s paper – drew a handful of responses, two of which were from Nashua natives Ed Jean and George Tebbetts.

I must say I was a tad embarassed that I didn’t recognize the three-story downtown block as the one that formed the majority of Main Street’s famous “bottleneck,” the bane of many a motorist until it was taken down in 1958.

“That photo that ran (Sunday)? That would be the old Main Street ‘bottleneck,'” Ed Jean said, not a trace of doubt in his voice. He said he could tell by inspecting the buildings on either side of the “bottleneck block,” even though a mere sliver of each one is visible in the photo.

Tebbetts, meanwhile, correctly placed the building “in the old block next to the Woolworth store and across from Newbury’s and roughly where Slawsby Insurance was.”

(The store and insurance offices were on the east side of Main Street just south of Main and Park streets).

George also said he was tipped off by inspecting the sliver of the building at left, which, he said, is the Woolworth block.

As for the trolley museum photos, Petillo, the longtime volunteer, wrote that the museum item I referred to as a restored trolley “isn’t really a trolley at all, and is not restored.” Oops.

Instead, the vehicle is “simply a life-size model of a trolley cab, and was never part of a real trolley.”

Oops again.

I also learned from John that I incorrectly described the trolley depicted in the other photo as “restored.” He also clarified that the trolley was giving visitors rides in the Lowell National Historic Park.

Well, at least I got the “trolley” part right the second time.

John goes on to provide tons more information, all of which is quite interesting but way too lengthy for this space.

So, my suggestion would be to go to www.trolleymuseum.org, where you’ll find a plethora of information, historic accounts, schedules and hours for both the Seashore Trolley Museum and the National Streetcar Museum at Lowell.

In the meantime, keep those cards and letters (and of course emails) coming in.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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