Category Archives: family

The Name is Fenway

I was born in Boston in 1952. My childhood, teenage years, and college career were spent within the confines of New England. My heart belonged to the Celtics and Red Sox. These allegiances were never challenged by my decades of living in New York or anywhere else in the world. When the Red Sox came […]

Family Humor

My Great Grandaunt Bert told a skunk joke to my youngest sister and brothers. “There were two skunks; one named In and the other Out. Once their mother said to Out, “Go find In.” Out went out and found In fast. Momma skunk was happy and asked how Out found In so fast. “In Stinks.” […]

Nagasaki Plus One Month 1945

This rare photo of the Hiroshima mushroom cloud was taken on August 6, 1945. The Hiroshima bombing claimed approximately 120,000 lives and the subsequent leveling of Nagasaki annihilated 80,000. The US military strategists have long held that these two attacks saved over a million US troops by forcing the Japanese Empire to surrender to the […]

My Father, My Best Friend

My father, Frank A Smith II came from Maine. His mother and father met during WWI. Edith Hamlin had been a nurse with Royal Canadian Medical Expedition. My grandmother had been trying to make a troopship to France. The gangway was being pulled and a man extended his hand to haul her aboard. That man […]

A Baguette and Butter

In the Sixties on the South Shore my Irish grandmother Nana served her grandchildren sugary tea and buttered Wonder Bread toast upon our return from parochial school. We dipped the crisp slices into the sweet milky tea and each bite revived our bodies and souls from the New England cold and eight hours under the […]