Category Archives: semi-fiction

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 […]

By Peter | Also posted in holiday, Nature, New England | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

JAI YEN MAI by Peter Nolan Smith

December 27, 2021 – 8:48 am

Several years ago on Boxing Day my daughter was playing on our soi in Pattaya. A pick-up roared down the street like the driver had murdered his wife and was bell-bent for the border. From my perspective the bumper came too close to my little precious daughter and I jumped on my scooter to chase […]

By Peter | Also posted in 2000s, Driving, family, fights, Pattaya, Thailand | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

MOVEABLE XMAS by Peter Nolan Smith

December 24, 2021 – 4:46 am

Christmas 2014 belongs to the past. That year I was too sick to travel to visit my family in Boston and I passed Christmas Eve hacking clear my lungs like Doc Holiday on his last legs at the Hotel Glenwood. Reputedly the tubercular gun fighter looked at his bare feet and spoke his last words, […]

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11:39PM

December 22, 2021 – 8:48 pm

A little before midnight. Five years ago I worked at the diamond exchange of 47th Street. There are no customers on the winter solstice. Only the rich have money, Richie Boy had sold several big-money items to his wealthy friends. $260,000 for a magnificent sapphire for an investment banker, $190,000 for a stunning Fancy Yellow […]

By Peter | Also posted in Diamonds, Liberty, Life, NEW YORK | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

AN XMAS EVE TALE by Peter Nolan Smith

December 22, 2021 – 12:21 am

Nine years ago the holiday sales plummeted to near-zero in New York’s Diamond District 47th Street. The Greater Depression had robbed the middle-class of their imagined wealth and jewelry purchases had been sacrificed to pay mortgages and credit card bills. America as a nation continued to suffer from the banking debacle, the collapse of the […]

By Peter | Also posted in 2000s, Drinking, NEW YORK | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)