Thank you Ron for this treasured gift of An Island No More!!!
Yesterday on our front porch my husband found a wonderful surprise package, not long a mystery from where it came with a lovely inscription from the author himself, Ron Gilson. An Island No More ~ The Gloucester I Knew is a deeply personal and fascinating account of Gloucester’s working waterfront and its people, with hundreds of black and white photographs. I was immediately transported to Gloucester during the Great Depression and haven’t been able to put down the book. An Island No More is available from Amazon or by contacting the author at P.O. Box 557, Gloucester, MA 01930.Note: The little boy sitting on the dock and looking at the Emily Brown (see the book jacket illustration) is none other than RON at eleven years old, circa 1944.
To read more about Ron Gilson and An Island No More see the following GMG posts:
Good Morning Gloucester 
Ron is a gentleman and he is so interesting
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I couldn’t agree more Donna!
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Thank you Ron — I got the book as a Christmas present — to myself — and just read it — in two days, which is rare for me. You have but two years on me so your description of how things were seemed very familiar, even though I grew up in the sticks on a little dairy farm and did not arrive in Gloucester until 1964. You and I were very lucky to have escaped the structured way things are done with kids nowadays. There were people I have known in your story and I was humbled to find that in some cases I had not taken the time to know them better.
“An Island No More” is an important contribution to Gloucester’s history. Highly recommended!
Al Bezanson
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Thank you for your recommendation Al. Looking forward to reading it tonight!!
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Great post, Kim. I just finished rereading “An Island No More” and was planning this morning to post about it. Ron’s memories of growing up in Gloucester in the 1940s are great for those of who didn’t grow up here, too. I live in downtown Gloucester not far from where Ron grew up and I find myself often thinking about his stories as I drive or walk by places he wrote about. It adds to my love of this city we call home. Thanks for the post, Kim — and thanks, Ron, for sharing your stories with all of us.
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By the way, I bought my copy of “An Island No More” at the Book Store on Main Street. They had sold out so I placed an order and the author was able to deliver one in like an hour. Our Ron not only writes great stories — he’s an expert in customer service!
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Wow–that is amazing customer service–quite possibly a record in book delivery!
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Thank you John and please go ahead and write what you were planning. I hope to write a little review, but am swamped with design work and won’t get to it right away.
I too love learning about the history of Gloucester, and find especially interesting the period in which Ron writes about in An island No More. Ron has an extraordinary memory and is a Gloucester treasure. And as Donna pointed out, a true gentleman, too.
FYI Everyone–the little boy sitting on the dock and looking at the Emily Brown (on the book jacket illustration) is none other than RON, at eleven years old, circa 1944.
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I was a crew member on the curlew crew when the lakeman family owned her.. we had many great haul backs I remember it to this day.. I was standing a watch about this time of the year 1982 when a helicopter appeared out of nowhere and it had navy emblems on its side they held me on channel I can’t remember now and said to stay where we were and continue our course the next thing I know the Navy fleet was coming through I sat there and said that’s where I want to be and that’s where I ended up
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