Gloucester Harbor in 1952

A Photo of Gloucester Harbor in 1952

This old picture turned up in a box of memorabilia that my mom had been saving.  I don't know who took it, or why an edge has been cut off, but there is a date on the reverse: 1952.  Wow.  I was two years old then.  Mayo did not work from photographs - in my memory he always gone in the summer mornings, off to "paint the boats."  Perhaps he used this image as a sort of compositional guide or detail guide.  Who knows?

For me this image evokes a constellation sounds, smells and visual memories.  Gorton's Fish factory was near where this was taken, so the smell of fish was always strongly in the air.  As a young child, about the only times I was taken to Gloucester were on shopping and errand expeditions.  We were often there around mid-day, when the noon whistle at the factory sounded.  Do you remember how loud that was?