Bruce Lowther In Provincetown ~ 1962

I first met Lowther (he preferred being called Lowther to Bruce) in the art room at the New Beford Public Library. In wintertime it was cheaper to spend my free days there than to heat my apartment, and their collection of books went well back into the nineteenth century, so there was always something interesting to look at. Lowther liked to draw. There were several of us who'd spend out afternoons there, staying warm, reading, chatting (softly), and smoking our pipes. It might seem strange now but fifty years ago you could smoke any damned place you pleased. If somebody complained you'd politely suggest that they move elsewhere in the room.

For a few years I stayed in sporadic touch with Lowther. Then I married Stephanie, moved from Boston back to New Bedford for a short while, then on to Miami! I haven't been to New Bedford or Boston in decades now. I've pretty much lost track of everyone. Some of them have no doubt died by now. That's what happens when you can't smoke a pipe indoors! Now all the pipe shops, the custom tobacco blenders, are gone. An era past! I have no idea what happened to Lowther or where he might be these days. He was about 18 when I shot this picture.