Combat Zone Amnesia
In the 60s urban social scientists in Boston created an adult entertainment area between the bus station on Boylston Street and Chinatown to contain the wickedness of mankind. The experiment...
View ArticleDEMO DERBY Paintings by Jane Dickson / Writing by Peter Nolan Smith
On a summer night in 1969 a high school friend Dave Quaan drove my older brother, next-door neighbor and me to Norwood Arena in his familys station wagon. The Ford Country Squire hit its top speed of...
View ArticleTHE CLOSET OF LOST THINGS by Peter Nolan Smith
The Nuns of Our Lady of the Foothills taught their students math, English, religion, history, geography, and a scattering of other basic subjects. Their educational technique depended heavily on rote...
View ArticleJuvenile Mobile Lock-Up
The Catholic Church promoted procreation in hopes that those of the faith would demographically overwhelm the other religions. My mother was a devout Catholic. She gave birth to six children through...
View ArticleTHE UMPTEENTH COMING by Peter Nolan Smith
“This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius” These words were sung by the cast of HAIR in 1969 and millions of hippies dropped acid to touch the sky of Aquarius. I wanted to be one of them and the...
View Article1 + 1 = 2 Circa 1972
The simple addition of 1 + 1 is the first math learned by children. Addition is followed by subtraction, division, and multiplication. The nuns at Our Lady of the Foothills believed in the power of...
View ArticleSTING LIKE A BEE by Peter Nolan Smith
This past May a tropical bee flew into our new house in Sri Racha. My wife attacked the flying insect with a broom. My two year-old son Fenway screamed at the buzzing creature. I rolled up yesterdays...
View ArticleSTUTTERING SIAM by Peter Nolan Smith
In the 1950s stuttering was considered a possible sign of mental retardation. At age 2 I spoke like a stuck record. My parents thought this disability would pass and I fooled them by mot speaking other...
View ArticleA FINE DAY FOR SAILING by Peter Nolan Smith
My grandmother hailed from County Mayo in Ireland. Her last name was Walsh. Nana sailed to Boston at the age of fourteen. Most of the other passengers were cattle. “In the Year of the Crow,” she told...
View ArticleFLUTE THING By Peter Nolan Smith
In the Spring of 1969 I ran for president of the South Shore CYO Deanery. My older brother was the incumbent and my election was close to unanimous. Throughout the summer I met with the other officers...
View ArticleFirst Line of EL TOPO
“Son, you are seven years old. You are man. Bury your first toy and your mother’s picture.” El Topo Life is tough on the young.
View ArticleHEAVY METAL ACCORDION by Peter Nolan Smith
Every boy has a best friend in his youth. In 1959 I was lucky enough to have two; my older brother Frunk and a neighbor. Chaney and I were in the same kindergarten class at Pinewood Elementary in...
View ArticleMuay Fenway
Muay Thai is featured every Sunday on Thai TV. As a young boy my son Fenway and his Uncle Nai watched the telecasts from Lumpini Stadium and other boxing venues in a mesmerized state. After the victors...
View ArticleANCIENT PORNO by Peter Nolan Smith
The term pornography was derived from the Greeks linking two words; prostitute and I read. The portrayal of sexual acts can be traced to pre-Ice Age and anthropologists have claimed that a naked...
View ArticleLOST FOR GOOD
My 6th Grade nun once told a young girl mourning the disappearance of her Barbie Doll, “Everything you ever lost will be in heaven waiting for you in a special closet.” These words stalled by apostasy...
View ArticleAX IN HAND by Peter Nolan Smith
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...
View ArticleTHE CLOSET OF LOST THINGS by Peter Nolan Smith
The Nuns of Our Lady of the Foothills taught their students math, English, religion, history, geography, and a scattering of other basic subjects. Their educational technique depended heavily on rote...
View ArticleParty Rules for Youth
My friend’s son is having a graduation party this weekend. Somehow I got invited via Facebook. I RSVPed ‘yes’ then checked the guests. Everyone is under 20. I’m three times that age, so I’m in the...
View ArticleRex Trailer’s Boomtown
Since the beginning of time humanity has risen thanks to the memories billions of people scattered across the globe. My recollection of names, places, and faces run back into the 1950s. At this point...
View ArticleLost Trains of Hamburg PA
All these trained are stranded at the Hamburg PA Train Museum. This was their last stop. These trains are relics of America’s rail system. This TGV represents Europe of today. All thanks to the...
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