Quincy Quarries

About the Book

Quincy Quarries: Gold and Gloom contains more than thirty pictures of various structures built of world famous Quincy granite during the "Golden Years" and of quarry scenes and individuals involved in various incidents during the years of "Gloom." Many deaths have been recorded due to rock slides, drowning, murder, and suicide.

About the Author

John A. Laukkanen, thanks to a midwife, added excitement to a New Year's Eve party on December 31, 1919 in Quincy, Massachusetts. More than eighty-three years of living there, included work as a restaurant employee, truck driver, operating a machine in the Turret Shop at the Fore River Shipyard planing the face plates for the sixteen inch guns on the U.S.S. Massachusetts, bakery salesman, vice president of an abrasive manufacturer, and field engineer and trouble shooter for another abrasive manufacturer. In between, he served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, with active duty in the Pacific and Asian area during World War II. Action involved the campaign on Okinawa from Easter Sunday landing to the Japanese surrender on the island and then on to Guam for further training. With the advent of the A-Bomb and the total surrender of the Japanese he was sent to Tsingtao, China for surrender ceremonies and the repatriation of the Japanese troops. In wonderful New England, John has the springtime opportunity to fish cool mountain streams and stocked ponds for trout, winter ice fishing for bass and yellow perch and the Atlantic Ocean for catching striped bass and blue fish as well as whale watching in the summertime. John also enjoys gardening, drawing pictures and murals, writing stories, books and poetry, and putting on shows for school children, various churches and senior citizen groups. Regular church attendance and participation in its various activities maintains his inspiration. John spent fifty-four wonderful years with his beloved wife Dot who, when she passed away, left him three marvelous daughters, Judi McAuliffe, Elaine Brady and Carol Malvesti, plus seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.