A coming-of-age story set in the mid-sixties, revolving around young John Terry, one of seven siblings in an Irish Catholic family growing up in the seaside village of Northport, nestled on the north shore of Long Island, NY
Young John’s world was chock full of crazy relatives, wonderful family friends, scary neighbors, the Catholic Church, those damn Kennedys, a midget, a spider monkey, girls, the beautiful village and town docks of Northport and the horrifying murder that shocked his small town to its core and sent his family into a tailspin.
In the summer of 1965 Northport was a time-forgotten, seaside hamlet about 50 miles due east of New York City. The Vietnam War was starting to rage, drugs, rock music and the hippie movement were all in full swing. Northport, however, was still a small village, seemingly insulated from the outside world where most families knew each other and many fathers either worked on the water or broke their backs at Steers Sand and Gravel.
It was a town where parents never thought twice about letting their young kids run wild for hours outside, playing together or fishing down at the town docks. It was a town where all the Main Street merchants knew you by your first name and you were taught at an early age that you could count on any of them to help you if you got yourself into a jam.
Northport was a wonderful, special world for a young boy to grow up in but as usual, life had a way of throwing John a few curveballs. One such curveball was a horrific murder that hit way too close to home.
These are his stories of Murder On Lewis Road and Growing Up Northport.
