My father was a faithful recorder of everyday life in our Melrose Highlands neighborhood. Looking at his slides brings back the projects and events that were of some note at the time, but are now largely faded from memory. This photo records the time when Ronnie McKean, shown here with his father Joe, won a 10 pound lobster. I can’t remember the contest (perhaps a giveaway by a local merchant or radio station) or whether five year old Ronnie even like lobster, but it was cooked up and enjoyed by the lobster lovers in our two families. There were likely steamers, corn on the cob, and hotdogs as well, a welcome repast at the end of a Saturday of hard work. My father was installing a swimming pool that summer. You can see the makeshift wooden ramp that he and other men in the neighborhood were using to haul concrete and patio blocks up to the area where the pool was to be set.
The Ten Pound Lobster, 1971
