2017

Marathon Bombing Survivor ‘Boston Wicked Strong’

January 13th, 2017

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One of my favorite workout T-shirts says: BOSTON WICKED STRONG. I bought it in Copley Square on Boylston Street, the year after two pressure-cooker bombs went off in 2013 near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, just up the street from the square. The slogan (“wicked” is Bostonese for very) became the city’s rallying cry after that horrific event, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others. I remember watching on television, enveloped in a great sadness. I know and love this part of Boston intimately after a few dozen visits over the years. We return nearly every summer...

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Kelly Plow a Scary Place for a Kid

January 6th, 2017

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I drive through downtown Longview most every weekday, headed to my day job on the south side. I almost always get stopped at the light at the intersection of High and Cotton streets either coming or going to work, sometimes both. On the northeast corner is a city-owned parking lot where the popular Farmer’s Market is held during late spring and summer. On that site once stood the scariest business establishments I encountered as a kid: Kelly Plow Company. In the late 1960s, when I began selling newspapers downtown at 13, one of my stops was this factory, built in 1907. Kelly Plow came into...

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