Tag Archives: bet on crazy

GUILT VERSUS SHAME by Peter Nolan Smith

December 24, 2023 – 2:29 am

Back in the last century I left work on 47th Street early on December 24. Manny complained that I was deserting my post selling diamonds, but I had been working every day since Thanksgiving. “I should pay you a half-day.” Manny was a grinch of the first-order. “Do what you want. I’m heading home.” Boston […]

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TORAH TORAH TORAH by Peter Nolan Smith

December 7, 2023 – 1:12 am

TORA TORA TORA was one of my mother’s favorite films. The infamy of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor burned bright in her memory. Her friends from Jamaica Plain enlisted in the Marines, Army, and Navy by the scores. Many of them failed to return to Boston. Their bodies rest on islands across the Pacific. […]

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KOSHER PIG by Peter Nolan Smith

September 25, 2023 – 1:58 am

Ten years ago business in the Diamond District was almost non-existent during the high holidays of Rosh Shananah and Yom Kippur. The Hassidim disappeared to the various shetls scattered around New York and tourists entered our diamond exchange to gawk at the diamonds and jewelry. At least twice a day out-of-towners asked in complete seriousness, […]

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A BARK BETTER THAN A BITE by Peter Nolan Smith

November 24, 2022 – 1:24 pm

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 rush in hopes of scoring enough cash to buy presents. Stores extended their normal hours to entice late-night shoppers. […]

By Peter | Posted in 60s, animals, Bet On Crazy, boston, family, holiday, semi-fiction | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre / BET ON CRAZY by Peter Nolan Smith

February 14, 2022 – 4:18 am

Every Valentine’s Day diamond dealers and jewelers on 47th Street anticipated a winter spending spree by lovers for their loved ones, but each year of the 21st Century the sales numbers dropped drastically, as the economic downturn cut into everyone’s surplus, but the rich. Valentine afternoon in February 2011 shoppers crammed the chocolatiers along 5th […]

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