Banking on Santa
You’re never too old, or too professional, to need a little Santa-time every now and again. The Teller still gets that happy twinge in the tummy every time we see the big jolly guy as we’re traipsing through yet another dreary mall at holiday time, under-caffeinated and probably overdrawn.
Apparently, the good folks at Beverly Cooperative Bank are of a similar mind.
On Saturday, Santa himself will make a visit to the bank’s main office at 254 Cabot St. in lovely Beverly. He’s a busy guy, that Santa, but he’s cleared his schedule from 10 a.m. to noon. After that, we imagine he’s got to be headed back to the North Pole, or at the very least somewhere equally fabulous on the North Shore.
But while he’s in Beverly, he “will be in the bank’s lobby, taking requests from children while one of his helpers snaps a picture of Santa with each child.” The photos will then be put into an ornament and given to the children as an early holiday gift from Beverly Cooperative. How thoughtful.
But maybe the best gift Beverly could give would be to open up Santa’s lap to more than just local children. We’re sure some local bankers who have been good all year have a mile-long wish list.
Think about it – is it that hard to imagine a local lender asking for more equity capital? Or someone asking Santa to make non-accruing loans magically start accruing again? Certainly, more than one might wish U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Christopher Dodd would stop breathing down their necks, or that “bailout” money from Uncle Sam didn’t come with so many strings attached (or such a stigma).
It’s the giving season. Beverly Co-op could go a long way toward giving us all a little taste of that happy twinge simply by letting us all clamber onto Santa’s lap. Why let the kids have all the fun?
And who knows? Maybe Santa needs a mortgage or a new credit card while he’s in town.
For Whom The Bell Tolls?
That was a specific question the citizens of Lowell had for a “mystery bell” that was discovered a few years ago in a family’s backyard. The bell was being used as a flower planter for the last 80 years, but no one knew why it was submerged in the yard.
Now the bell has been installed in front of an Eastern Bank branch in downtown Lowell as a memorial to honor those who built early Lowell.
It’s not every day someone realizes they have a bit of history holding the hibiscus out back, but the Draper Family – who were about to sell their home at 116 Jewett St. in the city’s Centralville neighborhood – thought it might be a good idea to donate it to the Lowell Heritage Partnership, which restored it.
Local historians believe the bell, which was made around 1859 by the Naylor Vickers Co. of Sheffield, England, “originally resided at a building known as the Old Market House at 40 Market St., which served as a market and later a police station, but housed this bell as a fire alarm before Lowell’s first fire station was erected on Palmer Street,” according to a press release.
“The bell is made of steel, rather than the more expensive bronze, and was struck by an exterior mechanical hammer. Local historians believe that this particular bell possessed a sharp tone designed to alert the populace in emergencies.”
Hopefully, the bell will only need to be rung for future celebrations and not for any emergencies anytime soon.
