(Kids run Memorial Day water races outside Faith Baptist Church)

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer. In many places, that means relaxed barbecues in backyards with acres of manicured grass. In the residential neighborhoods of downtown Nashua, it’s something different. T… Read full post »

 (Lucy Corley)

After raining all day Tuesday, it had finally cleared up a bit when I saw Lucy Corley navigating the sidewalk, pushing a heavy looking shopping cart.

Laundry, she explained. It hadn’t gotten quite dry, so she was going to iron it right away when… Read full post »

(Hillary Locke) 

When I met Hillary Locke, walking down the sidewalk on one of the bigger streets in my neighborhood, she’d already been trying for a while to reach her boyfriend on the phone. She needed to meet up with him to figure out what they were… Read full post »

(Tyrone's part of the neighborhood)

I first saw Tyrone running by me at the playground, where I was hanging out with my kids. He was surrounded by four boys of various ages, leading them off to play in a nearby field, carrying several huge, candy-colored toy guns. Afterward he… Read full post »

(Graffiti at a skate park near where I met Shawn Adams)

If you met Shawn Adams, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that he’s an aspiring hip-hop artist. He’s 27, muscular and brown-skinned, and when I met him he was wearing a hoodie and a hat with… Read full post »

(Karl Tiedemann and his dog)

When I introduced myself to Karl Tiedemann, I tried to ingratiate myself with his dog, reaching out my hand to let the muscular animal check whether I smelled okay. The dog growled.

I got the sense Karl was also slightly irritated at being… Read full post »

(Jamie's street)

Late Tuesday afternoon, Jamie and her nephew were walking side by side, each of them pushing a one-year-old girl in a little pink stroller. The curly-haired boy was barely tall enough to see over the top of the stroller, but he and the babies… Read full post »

(Ali Cassista, Eric Williams and Jackson) 

Eric Williams was walking down the bike path on a sunny Sunday afternoon, carrying his toddler, Parker, on his shoulders and chatting with his friend Ali Cassista.

Eric said his own budget is much tighter than it was a few… Read full post »

(Terri Rodriguez)

Terri Rodriguez was stationed at the bottom of a slide at the Bronstein Apartments public housing project on Tuesday afternoon, taking photos of her kids and their cousins as they raced each other down.

Her 11-year-old daughter and five-year-old son played happily with the… Read full post »

  (Palm Square)

Andy was taking a walk not far from my house when I met him, wearing a Yankees Go Home t-shirt and smoking a cigarette. He’s a stocky, muscular guy with dark, wavy hair. He said he’d rather I didn’t take his picture, partly because he thinks… Read full post »

(Matt Paul and Ann Branen)

Ann Branen and Matt Paul were returning from downtown Nashua to their home in another part of town when I met them on the bike path near my house. Matt was carrying a bag with some leftover pizza from a lunch they’d grabbed on Main… Read full post »

  (Kids at the school playground earlier in the winter)

On one of the first March days that felt like spring this year, the playground at the local grade school, Ledge Street Elementary, was teeming with yelling, climbing, laughing kids.

Heather and I were among the many… Read full post »

(The Bronstein Apartments)

For Keyla Ortiz, moving to the Bronstein Apartments last May was a great decision. Not long before that, the 22-year-old and her four kids had been living in a studio apartment in the nearby Tree Streets neighborhood, paying almost $600 a month for rent and… Read full post »

(Tom)

Tom was walking home from work in Wednesday’s snowstorm, carrying his cooler from lunch. He owns a pickup truck and a motorcycle, he said, but he still walks a lot, in Mine Falls Park most days, and also the half hour each way to and from work.… Read full post »

(Maria and her granddaughter)

As snow began falling Wednesday afternoon, Maria and her granddaughter were pushing a wheelbarrow full of logs toward her house.

The front tire was flat, and the logs, big chunks of wood cut from storm-damaged trees, kept falling out and rolling away. When that… Read full post »

(Jorge DeLeon)

Jorge DeLeon was standing in a doorway at my neighborhood’s public housing complex, the Bronstein Apartments, wearing a jacket over Cookie Monster pajama bottoms and smoking a cigarette, when I saw him.

He doesn’t live at the apartment, he said, but he was taking… Read full post »

I saw John Smith walking toward me on the bike path from a distance: a big guy, wearing all black, with black hair and a beard. When he got closer I saw the little bag he had slung over his shoulder, but it wasn’t until he was almost next… Read full post »

(One of Tracy's dogs in the newly raked yard)

Tracy was working in her small yard when I saw her, vigorously raking up dead grass. She’s a renter, but she wants to keep the property in order so her dogs have a good place to play. It’s not easy… Read full post »

(Grace Ledgister)

It was well below freezing, and a vicious wind was blowing when I saw Grace Ledgister walking down the sidewalk, carrying a plastic shopping bag over her shoulder.

Grace was wearing slippers and a sweatshirt, hood pulled tight around her face. I asked her… Read full post »

(The cost of child care can be a barrier to work.)

When I’m interviewing people for my blog, every once in a while someone says something like, “and then my unemployment benefits ran out, so I had to get a job.”

It doesn’t happen that often, but when… Read full post »

(Tara and her daughters)

When I saw Tara Deering skipping down the bike path, racing two small girls as they headed toward the elementary school, I wondered at first if she was their older sister. She has long black hair and a tiny sliver nose ring, and she wears… Read full post »

(One of the convenience stores where Frank shops)

Frank is 68. When I met him, he was carrying a couple of heavy plastic bags from a local convenience store back to his house.

He doesn’t have a car, he said. Not driving saves him money, and he… Read full post »

 

I had seen June walking her dog on the bike path before I met her. She uses a cane, but she moves fairly easily, and it seems to just brush the ground. She asked me not to use the dog’s name, or her real one, because she wouldn’t want her family…

Read full post »

 (A view from the bike path through Nashua's tree streets.)

Kelly was walking her pug through fresh snow on the bike path when I met her. She grew up there, in the tree streets neighborhood, she said, and at 21 she’s only lived outside the city for a few years.… Read full post »