I found out this morning while walking the beach that my boots aren’t waterproof. It happened when I was framing a picture of some gulls in flight and wasn’t looking down at my feet or noticing the pattern of waves coming closer to the shore. I did notice that there are always joggers, dog walkers, […]
We couldn’t believe our ears. An elderly stranger stopped my sister Trish and me at the Nantasket Beach seawall and told us he had a song he wanted to sing. We agreed to hear it, but before he took us by surprise with his “Oh-bama, Oh-bama, how you can love,” refrain, to tune of ‘Oh, […]
Meeting Sophia (my sister Sherry’s grandchild). Getting a firedog bobble-head named after me by my great nephew Joshua. Taking my mom on a drive to the cemetery and listening to a Frank Sinatra CD while she sang along. Evening walks on the beach. Sunday dinner at my mother’s house. My brother Joey is a good […]
This is how close the beach town peninsula I grew up on is to Boston. Twenty-something miles south of the city but only a stone’s throw by boat. Although Hull is best known for Nantasket Beach, we grew up on Stony Beach (pictured) at the entrance to Hull Village, which is at furthest end of […]
A 95 pound bank vice-president by weekday, she needed some help reeling this one in. I think it was her first catch, and surely her first 30 inch striped bass. When I asked her what she said when she caught it, she answered, “Wow, that thing is big!” I’m glad it didn’t pull her in! […]
That’s what my brother-in-law Nelson told me before he snapped this picture of me with Chief Massasoit in Plymouth. Of course I made him google it to prove it. For a brief time I lived in Plymouth within walking distance from the rock, but that was more than 30 years ago and I hadn’t been […]
I like the beach in the evening when most of the people are gone, when a gully of sea water lights up with the fire of sunset that catches and spreads to the sky. I like to walk to the big house with the weathered shingles and the shamrock hanging on the front porch and […]
I tried to dance barefoot at Daddy’s Beach Club next door to Barefoot Bob’s, but the floor was so dirty that a layer of black grime covered the bottom of my feet and by the end of the first song I headed for the bathroom to scrub them with soap and paper towels. We enjoyed […]
Big hair, MTV and mothering babies. That’s what the 80’s were to me. And then came a move to the country, a first marriage ended and a new love was found. It was a time for community, for creating our own celebrations, for home-made, home-schooled and the harmonic convergence. We learned to grow and preserve […]
I’m working on St. Patrick’s Day (supporting an adult with disabilities), so the extent of my celebratory wearing of green will likely be the two green wristbands from the two bands I saw perform this weekend. I earned the first one Friday night at Dogtown Roadhouse where I heard Paleface perform and fantasized them singing […]
Did I drink too much beer? There was a winter draft with cinnamon, beer with blueberries and dark beer mix with a top as creamy as Guinness. The band setting up was called the Syd Slack Elastic Waist Band. Someone actually flirted with me and there were green spots floating all over the bar. See […]
AKA: Can You Understand These Boston Accents?
AKA: A Thanksgiving Warm-up I wish I had gotten a picture of the winter coat fashion show my sisters and I put on in the living room or one of my brother Joey’s meatloaf with roasted brussel sprouts and potatoes. Scratch tickets have always been a part of Sunday dinners at my mother’s house. Nobody won the […]
Kids on the sidewalk skipping to the school bus with backpacks and lunch pails swinging. Soup bones simmering on the stove where a tea kettle lightly whistles. Ellen DeGeneres on TV in the living room where my mother is resting. Anxious cat sprints across the kitchen floor interrupting my stocking footed step. Workmen scale the roof […]
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The beach at sunset is the Louvre of nature A Sistine Chapel of sky A Maxfield Parrish of pink-lined clouds over a Timothy Leary of tide The beach at sunset is a great romance of Mona Lisa moon and Van Gogh sun Where Lovers stroll and paddle surfers sweep the deep end of ocean Painting […]
While everyone in Floyd was jubileeing to the town’s second annual Jubilee celebration, reading poetry at the third Saturday Spoken Word Open Mic, celebrating The Floyd Country Store’s 100 year anniversary or the Dogtgown Pizza Roadhouse’s Grand Opening, I was crashing a party for the class of 1967 (the class above mine with […]
“The ghosts are here,” I say to myself as I drive through the village of this typical New England beach town I grew up in. Then the truth comes: I am the ghost. I am the ghost haunting my past, as I slowly drive by where our family house used to be before it was taken […]
