Peace Marches And Protesters

The sixties were an age of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It was also a time when the younger generation was fed up with being used as canon fodder in a sensless unwinnable war in Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile the leaders of both sides were in a race to produce the biggest baddest bomb ever. Underground nuclear testing had replaced tests in the atmosphere but people still didn't like it. Protests and peace marches took place around the planet. This was photographed in the Boston Commons in the early sixties.

Feeding The Pigeons In Boston Commons ~ 1964

It was a chilly November afternoon, and as I was walking across the Boston Commons I spotted this woman feeding the pigeons. She was breaking up some bread, scattering it on the ground, and hundreds and hundreds of pigeons had gathered for the feast! I'd only shot three frames when she was out of bread and walked off. This was the best of the three.

I was using a Minolta Autocord, which took 12 exposures on a roll of 120 film. I'd been wanting one for a long time and just recently purchased this one second hand at a good price. I got a lot of good pictures with that camera. I recently got another one. I hope that the magic returns.

Another Oldie ~ Springtime In Boston 1964

Some memories are sharper than others but my memories of Jay are still crystal clear. We met at the bus station in Boston. I used to take the bus every few weeks to visit my dad in New Bedford. Jay was from Scarsdale, New York and would take the train to Boston and then the bus to the ivy league prep shool that she attended in Hyannis on Cape Cod. Her dad was quite wealthy, an oil broker. We were both at the bus station waiting for our buses and struck up a conversation, exchanged addresses (people wrote letters back then and I didn't have a phone)and got on our buses.

A few days later a letter arrived, I wrote back. We exchanged two, maybe three letters, then one day there was a knock on the door. Jay was there, suitcase in hand. I used a neighbor's phone and called her father. The next day he arrived to get his daughter and drive her to school. Jay and I exchanged a few more letters and then there was that knock on the door. Once more I called her dad.

He said that I seemed like a responsible guy and that if he came to get Jay most likely she'd be back at my place within a day or two, or worse, just run off and nobody would know where she was. He suggested that she should stay with me and he'd send a check every week to cover expenses. I agreed. Every few weeks we'd take the train to Scarsdale and spend a weekend with her folks. I soon fell very much in love. The relationship lasted close to a year, and then she decided that she liked one of my friends better. I used to run into her on occasion over the next few months but then I think she moved to New York.

This was shot in Boston Commons in the early spring of 1964 with a Leica III-C and a 35mm f/1.8 Canon lens, and the badly faded print was probably made from an Ektachrome transparency. Jay, if you're out there someplace please send me an email, just for old time's sake.