5 Responses to ‘Smokestack Lightning: Stories” by Steve O’Connor
pam grimes says:
I grew up in the 60’s on Marginal Street in Lowell and was back visiting last month when I got your book Smokestack Lightning. I can’t even befin to tell you how much I am enjoying it. The trains that we just got accustomed to but people visiting couldn’t understand how we could live with the noise. Are you related to Rory OConnor. I remember him and his family. So many memories from Marginal Street. Couldn’t believe when I drove up and down a few times on my last visit.
Pam Proctor Grimes
Steve says:
Thanks very much, Pam. I’m glad you’re enjoying the book. Yes, Rory is my brother.
(See the intro to S.L.) My sister Ellen just called and said that she and her husband were up on the beach at Old Orchard and they could see him out on his boat fishing.
We left Marginal Street probably in 63, but the name Proctor does ring a bell. (I always want to stop at number 39 and ask the current owner if I could walk through, but I’m always afraid I might find some single mother who would be terrified of such a bizarre request from a stranger.) Brian McNamara, who lived around the corner on Wilder, beside the tracks, did some carpentry for me recently, and I met Micky McAndrews’ wife one day. I haven’t seen him since I was eight, but she said he had found his name in the book. Hard to make up names with that much character.
I have an essay written a while back about the trains and Marginal Street. My email is inside the book: osocon@aol.com. Send me an e mail and I’ll send you back the essay, and thanks once again for taking the time to write. Steve O’Connor
Rick Ryan says:
Is that the is that the same smokestack that was struck on saturday?
PaulM says:
No, Rick, the smokestack on the cover is between Market St and Jackson St.
Great book. Nice to have such a gifted author in the neighborhood :-) I loved ‘Powers of Heaven’, ‘Smokestack Lighting’ and ‘In Demeter’s Garden’. Thanks for reminding me!
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I grew up in the 60’s on Marginal Street in Lowell and was back visiting last month when I got your book Smokestack Lightning. I can’t even befin to tell you how much I am enjoying it. The trains that we just got accustomed to but people visiting couldn’t understand how we could live with the noise. Are you related to Rory OConnor. I remember him and his family. So many memories from Marginal Street. Couldn’t believe when I drove up and down a few times on my last visit.
Pam Proctor Grimes
Thanks very much, Pam. I’m glad you’re enjoying the book. Yes, Rory is my brother.
(See the intro to S.L.) My sister Ellen just called and said that she and her husband were up on the beach at Old Orchard and they could see him out on his boat fishing.
We left Marginal Street probably in 63, but the name Proctor does ring a bell. (I always want to stop at number 39 and ask the current owner if I could walk through, but I’m always afraid I might find some single mother who would be terrified of such a bizarre request from a stranger.) Brian McNamara, who lived around the corner on Wilder, beside the tracks, did some carpentry for me recently, and I met Micky McAndrews’ wife one day. I haven’t seen him since I was eight, but she said he had found his name in the book. Hard to make up names with that much character.
I have an essay written a while back about the trains and Marginal Street. My email is inside the book: osocon@aol.com. Send me an e mail and I’ll send you back the essay, and thanks once again for taking the time to write. Steve O’Connor
Is that the is that the same smokestack that was struck on saturday?
No, Rick, the smokestack on the cover is between Market St and Jackson St.
Great book. Nice to have such a gifted author in the neighborhood :-) I loved ‘Powers of Heaven’, ‘Smokestack Lighting’ and ‘In Demeter’s Garden’. Thanks for reminding me!