Tag Archives: paragon park

A FINE DAY FOR SAILING by Peter Nolan Smith

March 11, 2023 – 11:17 am

My grandmother hailed from County Mayo in Ireland. Her last name was Walsh. Nana traveled by ship to Boston at the age of fourteen. Most of the other passengers were cattle. “We sailed in the Year of the Crow,” she told her grandchildren in her lovely Gaelic accent. “When was that?” I asked to pin […]

By Peter | Posted in 60s, boston, family, sea, semi-fiction, youth | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

The SS Showboat Mayflower Nantasket

November 26, 2020 – 3:11 am

Throughout the early part of the 20th Century a fleet of side wheel steamers plied the waters of Boston harbor. The flotilla was reduced to one by a fire in 1919, but the Mayflower ran to Nantasket Beach until 1948. After its decommission its new owner hauled the white-hulled ship close to shore and opened […]

By Peter | Posted in 60s, boston, cars, New England, sea, semi-fiction, youth | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

AX IN HAND by Peter Nolan Smith

June 10, 2020 – 4:55 pm

My mother had spent her honeymoon on Bermuda. Every winter my parents had vacationed in the Caribbean and each July my father rented a Harwichport cottage for a week. My mother loved the ocean. On summer weekends they loaded his six children into the Ford Station wagon for a drive to the beach. Massachusetts had […]

By Peter | Posted in 60s, boston, friends, Life, music, race, rock, semi-fiction, youth | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Nantasket Beach Forever

May 8, 2020 – 1:25 pm

In 1981 I was working after-hour clubs for Arthur Weinstein. I needed a break from the hustle and fled north to the South Shore of Boston. No one called me. I slept and read. My mother greeted me at the breakfast table and apologized for the boredom of the suburbs and I recalled a line […]

By Peter | Posted in Nature, New England, south shore | Also tagged | Comments (0)