Tag Archives: paragon park

A FINE DAY FOR SAILING by Peter Nolan Smith

August 30, 2024 – 11:17 am

My grandmother hailed from County Mayo in Ireland. Her last name was Walsh. At the age of fourteen Nana traveled to Boston by ship. Most of the other passengers were cattle. “It was an awful crossing. Storms most of the way. We sailed in the Year of the Crow,” she told her grandchildren in her […]

By Peter | Posted in 60s, boston, family, sea, semi-fiction, youth | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

The SS Showboat Mayflower Nantasket

August 30, 2024 – 3:11 am

From 2012 A fleet of side wheel steamers plied the waters of Boston harbor in the early part of the 20th Century. The flotilla was reduced to one by a fire in 1919. The Mayflower remained in service until 1948. After its decommission its new owner had the white-hulled ship hauled close to shore several […]

By Peter | Posted in 60s, boston, cars, New England, sea, semi-fiction, youth | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

AX IN HAND by Peter Nolan Smith

June 10, 2020 – 4:55 pm

My mother had spent her honeymoon on Bermuda. Every winter my parents had vacationed in the Caribbean and each July my father rented a Harwichport cottage for a week. My mother loved the ocean. On summer weekends they loaded his six children into the Ford Station wagon for a drive to the beach. Massachusetts had […]

By Peter | Posted in 60s, boston, friends, Life, music, race, rock, semi-fiction, youth | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Nantasket Beach Forever

May 8, 2020 – 1:25 pm

In 1981 I was working after-hour clubs for Arthur Weinstein. I needed a break from the hustle and fled north to the South Shore of Boston. No one called me. I slept and read. My mother greeted me at the breakfast table and apologized for the boredom of the suburbs and I recalled a line […]

By Peter | Posted in Nature, New England, south shore | Also tagged | Comments (0)