Category Archives: New England

BROKEN ICE by Peter Nolan Smith

January 30, 2022 – 8:44 am

Back in the last century the rivers, lakes, and ponds froze solid during the New England winters. Fishing shacks were dragged onto the ice and young boys played hockey in sub-zero temperatures with fires blazing on shore to warm frostbit fingers and toes. Daring teenagers drove across the smooth surfaces and their big Detroit cars […]

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THE RAT TRICK by Peter Nolan Smith

January 29, 2022 – 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 […]

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Black Ice

January 29, 2022 – 1:52 am

Last month smug northerners ridiculed the snowbound paralysis of Dallas. ‘Maybe we should airlift Maine drivers down to the South to teach them how to drive in winter conditions,” joked a friend at the 169 Bar in Chinatown.. “My grandfather once said, “There are two seasons in Maine, the season of good sledding and the […]

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The Last Christmas Tree

December 28, 2021 – 1:40 pm

After Thanksgiving Christmas trees crowd the sidewalks of New York. On the corner of Fulton and St. Felix Streets the holiday franchise has been run by Laurent and Amy, who have transported evergreens from the northern forest of Quebec for the last six seasons. We spoke in French with their accent a provincial Quebecois and […]

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The Elegance of the Wampanoags

November 25, 2021 – 8:07 am

They were not the savages.

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