Category Archives: New England

THE RAT TRICK by Peter Nolan Smith

December 16, 2011 – 9:46 am

Hockey was bred into the blood of many New England boys. Frozen ponds and backyard rinks were our winter playground. My dreams of playing for the Boston Bruins ended with my father giving my older brother and me a lesson in how to skate backwards. We were standing the wind-swept surface of Watchic Pond. My [...]

By Peter | Also posted in 70s, Sports, boston, family, semi-fiction | Comments (0)

A BARK IS BETTER THAN A BITE By Peter Nolan Smith

November 25, 2011 – 11:07 am

Every diamond shop on West 47th Street was open seven days a week from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. Sales people, guards, elevator operators, schleppers, cutters, setters, polishers, and even Lennie the Bum slaved throughout the holiday in hopes of scoring enough money pay off bills and buy presents for wives, lovers, and children. Stores extended [...]

By Peter | Also posted in 60s, Love, animals, boston, holiday, semi-fiction, youth | Comments (0)

The Elegance of the Wampanoags

November 24, 2011 – 8:07 am

They were not the savages.

By Peter | Also posted in history, holiday | Comments (0)

No Thanks Day

November 23, 2011 – 11:00 am

The Yankee side of my family hailed from descendants of the Mayflower. The Hamlin clan owed its survival through the first winter to the Wamanpoags or people of the dawn. The Saints and Strangers of the Old World showed their gratitude by forcing the disease-weakened natives from their ancestral home much as the Moses’ ancestors [...]

By Peter | Also posted in Traditions, america | Comments (0)

Hello It’s Me

November 18, 2011 – 6:23 am

The train tracks from Boston to New York were laid through the western pine barrens of Rhode Island in the 19th Century. The pine forests grow on deep sand deposits left over from the glacial melting of the Ice Age. The Kingston Pine Barrens have resisted population and one winter afternoon in 1979 I was [...]

By Peter | Also posted in 70s, Nature, Travel | Comments (0)