In 1936, my great-grandfather Ralph was transferred to General Electric's plant in Lynn.  So he picked up his pregnant wife and preschool son, Dinon, and moved from the west end of Massachusetts all the way to the tiny peninsula of Nahant on the seaboard side.

 

 

“In the house we lived in, I could see the ocean two different directions from my bedroom - you could look out it at a forty-five degree angle and see it one direction, and at forty-five the other way and see the ocean, and of course when I lived there I thought it was great, I loved living there.  I loved it," Dinon said.  "When we had a storm, dad would take us down closer to some place we could watch the waves come in and splash against the rocks, and watch the foam go waaaay up in the air.  I mean, way way up.  I thought that was really great."

"Big tree after Sept. 1938 Hurricane" (source)

In September of 1938, the Great New England Hurricane blew by - and was just another adventure for a happy seven-year-old boy.

"My dad was out of town on business, and he tried to get back but he couldn't, the storm was so bad.   We lost power and it was dark, so Mother had to light some candles," Dinon recalled.  "The next day, a lot of the big trees were lying down, and of course the roots were vertical because they just toppled over.  Well, gee, going to school you either went over the tree or around it, and I thought, 'Well, this is great fun!'"

 

"I remember my father had arranged for one of our neighbors from Pittsfield, the Gigerichs, to come and have a fishing trip.  This was just after the hurricane.  I remember we went on this boat, and the ocean had swells that go way up, and way way down, and way way up, and way way down," my grandfather said, chuckling and waving his hands to illustrate.  "Everybody on that boat got seasick except me and their daughter, Judy, who was about my age."

 

And sometimes he would even hitchhike (a common way to travel in that time) over the causeway to Lynn, the town where his father worked.

"I was really a bad boy," my grandfather said, folding his hands and shaking his head.  "Most people do not know that I would hitchhike into Lynn and would shoplift from some of the drugstores – take a flashlight, or something, nothing very big."

As he told this story, he was sitting in the neatly-maintained home that he purchased 40+ years ago with his life-long wife, the same house that they raised their four children in.  Even now, in his eighties, he continues to landscape his yard, fix his gutters, pay his taxes, and go to church every Sunday.  In that living room, the thought of my grandfather shoplifting at any age was stupefying.
 

Old Postcard of Bass Point Beach in Nahant (source)

"One day, the police came to the door at my home," Dinon said.  "Well, I denied it, I flat-out denied that I had anything to do with it, because there was another kid that was doing the same thing.  We stashed our ‘loot’ in some abandoned building … I guess we did it because it was something to do.  After the policeman came to the door, I just quit, I mean, that was it, baby!  I wasn't taking any more chances, I didn't want to be a crook!  But there was a short time in there that it was more fun than anything else, that I was doing it and not getting caught, but I came very close!"

He chuckled, embarrassed.

"I don’t have any clue as to why they came to the door, because this was early evening when the policeman showed up.  So, my guess now is that they caught the other kid and he ratted me out, that’s the only thing I can think of.  But it was a time, and I was glad to finally get back on the 'straight and narrow', I guess," he said.  "I don't think my parents ever found out.  I told [your grandmother] Liz, but very few people know that I did that, and I don’t even think any of my kids know.  But you know, as a kid, you do some dumb things – you get in the wrong crowd, or, whatever, and veer off the 'straight and narrow'."

(Next story: Nahant, MA: Wartime)