Category Archives: youth

In Honor of Lassitude

Written Sept. 1, 2013 Back in 2008 the BBC broadcast a story about a Bogota Museum honoring laziness with a week-long exhibition dedicated to a deeper understanding of lethargy. At last lassitude has achieved respect by intellectuals who too often have downplayed its importance to human existence. Throughout the 80s and 90s my Sundays were […]

Cumberland County Kingdom

Written July 1, 2021 From the Kezar Pond to Saco Bay. Old Orchard Beach to Bailey’s Island. The land of my youth The summer camp on Watchic Pond Built by my grandfather. An orphan became a frontline surgeon in WWI France. A retreat from the horrors to Maine With a nurse, my grandmother. A noble […]

Chaney – Sebago Lake – July 1960

Written July 1, 2021 My best friends as a child were my older brother and Chaney We lived in Falmouth Foresides, Maine. We did everything together. School, hockey, eating stolen strawberries from the nearby farm, hang at the docks at the end of our street, and swim at Sebago Lake. My family moved to the […]

BLESS ME FATHER by Peter Nolan Smith

Written February 10, 2022 My First Holy Communion and Confirmation of Faith to the Catholic Church took place at a church in Maine in 1960. My mother dressed me in white to symbolize the purity of my soul, although she had me wear a red jacket with a black velvet lapel. I had a fight […]

HEAVY METAL ACCORDION by Peter Nolan Smith

Written May 3, 2020 Every boy has a best friend in his youth. In 1959 my family lived on Falmouth Foresides. Mckinley Road ended at the bluff overlooking the mudflats of Portland Harbor. I was lucky enough to have two friends; my older brother Frunk and a neighbor. Chaney and I attended the same kindergarten […]