Kassandra's Reflections~2010

Kassandra Pirela
Lawrence High School Class 2011

If you would have asked me four years ago, when I was just starting high school, the directions to the Lawrence History Center, I would have told you “Sorry, I don’t know.” Then I would have asked myself if we actually have a place like that in Lawrence.

It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I finally found out what the little red brick building at the end of Essex Street was called. The first time I stepped into the Lawrence History Center was when I came with my teacher and three of my fellow classmates on a field trip. We wanted to get information on a project we were doing on the Ayer Mill.

That was the first time I met Barbara. We all gathered in the front room and she presented us a PowerPoint of the history of Lawrence. The one thing that surprised me was that Lawrence used to be Eco-friendly and I was excited to see all the pictures from the old days. After the presentation, I felt surprised that I didn’t even know a place like the History Center ever existed. I have been living in Lawrence my whole life and I didn’t even know that Lawrence had its own little building filled with history of the city that I love.

When two years past, that very same teacher who took us to the Lawrence History Center came up to me and asked what was my summer plans. When I told him that I wasn’t doing anything, he told me about a summer job in the history center. I immediately said yes because after two years I still have the pictures we took on the trip and the images of the vaults inside my head. I wanted to get to know more about my city and help out with anything they needed me to do. Therefore, I applied for it and a few weeks later I got the job. I was so excited to see what I was going to be doing and what I was going to learn.

At the first day of work, I got to organize file cabinets. My supervisor, Amita, told me to remove all the files that were from the years 1999 and lower. I was surprised to see papers that were from the 1800s. The things that I did while working in the Lawrence History Center were organizing subject boxes, cutting out news clippings, and making an inventory on jail records that were from the year of 1911.

The best job assignment I had to do was the jail records because it was intriguing to see what people in the old days used to get arrested for. I was really surprised to see many people getting arrested for being drunk. One of the things that I was amazed was that males were getting arrested for neglecting their wives and children. I was amazed because in the present, males don’t get arrested for that any more, so it brought me to ask myself why they don’t arrest males for neglecting their wives and children now when they did in the past. I was also amazed that many people who got arrested were German, Irish, British, and Canadian. It made me realized why our city is called the “Immigrant City.”

When Lawrence was created, many immigrants from around the world came to Lawrence and made it their home. It’s still like this today. When we look at the faces of the people living in Lawrence, you don’t only see Hispanics and Americans, you also see Lebanese people, Italians, Asians and Haitians. I wanted to point out that our city is a community of mix cultures and ethnic backgrounds, which makes our city special.

Some of the subject boxes that I had to sort through were the Germans, Social Services, and Arabic boxes. I was proud to see that the Lawrence History Center preserved the littlest things like a menu that was from a German restaurant that got brought down. All these little things are a little history and should be appreciated.

Many people do not appreciate the history of Lawrence because some believe that it’s not worth it, but those people that resides in Lawrence are also history in the making. If they preserve things they used today and the pictures of themselves, in 50 years the workers in the Lawrence History Center would be looking at those things and would find it very exquisite.

Those very people who believe that Lawrence is not important are wrong, because even though Lawrence is not the richest city in the world, it’s still part of history. I believe that Lawrence and the Lawrence History Center are great valuables to me and the world because it is a place that I have many memorable memories that I want to share with my future family members or future friends.

My overall experience in the history center was very memorable. I got to learn many things about Lawrence and got to meet very kind people. I would always keep my memories of this summer of 2010 in a special place in my heart.