Category Archives: semi-fiction

BOXING DAY ON THE BOWERY by Peter Nolan Smith

December 26, 2022 – 2:54 am

Every Christmas my mother cooked a 20-pound turkey, I mashed seasoned potatoes, and my sisters set the dining room table with yams, creamed onions, turnips, peas, stuffing, and all the fixings for my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmothers, friends, cousins, sisters, and brothers. Grace was said with bowed heads. Our plates were swept by forks and […]

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BOXING DAY BLIZZARD by Peter Nolan Smith

December 26, 2022 – 2:18 am

December 23 2010 was my last day of work for the holiday season. Richie Boy and I had worked three weeks solid. An extra hour was added to the schedule in hopes of last minute shoppers. There were none. Jewelry was x-ed off Santa’s list this year, although Richie Boy held high hopes for December […]

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SANDWICH RUN by Peter Nolan Smith

December 22, 2022 – 10:21 am

New York nightclubs closed at 4am in 1979, however many people didn’t want to go home after Studio 54, the Mudd Club, Xenon or CBGBs. The Mafia ran the after-hour clubs like the Cisco Disco, the 82 Club and the Nursery on 3rd Avenue. Drinks were served with an undesirable degree of danger, so when […]

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11:59PM – bet on crazy

December 21, 2022 – 8:04 am

The Friday before Christmas was the Winter Solstice. I stopped by the diamond exchange on 47th Street. There were no customers in sight. Only the rich have money and the vast majority of the .00001 had fled south for Palm Beach or St. Bart’s. Richie Boy was working with a wealthy friend, asking $260,000 for […]

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Ho Ho Ho Hannukah

December 19, 2022 – 2:59 am

Five years ago my boss’ grandson visited her jewelry store with her husband. The holiday season had been brutal. We had yet to make a sale. While her husband parked their Landrover, Jeri taught the six-year-old how to open a safe and once the handsome lad opened the steel cube she asked, “Did you get […]

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