In 1969 I was wearing a black floppy hat while riding the subway from Boston when a little boy pointed at me and asked his mother, “Is that a hippie?” By the time “the 60’s” hit Boston it was 1969. The term “hippie” was already un-hip by east coast counter-culture standards, and too many in […]
Gonna take a sentimental journey … Gonna set my heart at ease … Gonna make a sentimental journey … To renew old memories … ~ lyrics from Sentimental Journey, made famous by Doris Day in 1944 He was whistling along to the 1940’s music playing on the car tape player. I was sitting next to […]
I am from Hail Mary full of grapes … midnight mass and pennies in the poor box … I’m from the unlucky luck of the Irish … the Old Sod and Southie before there were gangsters … Excerpt from “Where I’m From” by Colleen One of my goals for my recent trip home to Massachusetts […]
In the last twelve days I’ve eaten Italian food in the North End of Boston, walked the alphabet streets of South Boston where my grandparents met and my father was born, and toured the forts on Castle Island with a tour guide who flirted with me. I took a five hour boat ride, saw seven […]
1. Petal pusher 2. Beach bums 3. Rock on 4. Four eyes Photos: 1. A bee’s nose in a New England beach rose. 2. In New England butts are called bums. 3. It was a good day for building sand castles and playing in the sand yesterday on Nantasket Beach. 4. You’ve heard of putting […]
A Sunday Scribbling: Like the broccoli and kale starts I’ve been planting in my garden, I was taken from the safety of the greenhouse of my childhood and transplanted somewhere else. I used to lie in bed at night as a young girl and think about life. Why in the world would I want to […]
I probably won’t be seeing fireworks this year because I’m busy getting ready for my youngest son Dylan’s wedding this weekend, but I saw enough of them last year while in Hull, Massachusetts, visiting my family to satisfy me for two years. Below is an encore post from then: Here, in the South Shore of […]
These days it’s hard to know if I’m coming or going, and my father’s progress since his car accident three weeks ago seems to take one step forward and two back. First there was the 2 week trip to Aspen for a wedding in October and then a week in Boston this November to visit […]
People walking the beach don’t organize themselves like they do on the road when driving, or when they’re swimming laps in a pool, which is part of the reason I like to do it. There are no up and down lanes or one-way rules to follow. Some people walk determinedly, while others seem to wander. […]
AKA: Homecoming at the Venetian ~ It was as if I was holding court at the Italian restaurant where my mother and I had gone to eat dinner and my sister, Kathy, the restaurant’s manager, was the master of ceremony. Over the course of our dinner – angel hair pasta with garlic, olive oil, and […]
At first I thought they were black loons treading water offshore like seagulls do. I even briefly considered sharks, but I knew that would be highly unlikely. As I got closer, I saw that they were surfers, about 8 of them. Two of them had banana yellow surfboards, one had a bright blue-green board, and […]
AKA Landing: I found the dentist’s appointment card while rummaging through my pocketbook on October 29th. I was cleaning it out in preparation for my trip to Boston to visit my father in the hospital. The card said my next cleaning would be March 20. Isn’t that my dad’s birthday? The first day of spring? […]
