The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy

LOU AND HIS CREW spread sketches and drawings and charts and graphs along the bar to show Al and me what they intended to do with Small’s. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

THIS DAY, Monday, was the first real working day for Lou’s takeover team, and they spent the day in constant conference, proposing and planning, scheming and dreaming. They were still buzzing after dinner, when we gathered in the lounge, but I silenced them with my reading of “Shame on Me,” episode forty-nine of Dead Air. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observati...

I TOOK A WALK around the rim of the island at dawn, walking along the sand, with my shoes off, in the lapping water, through the stones, pebbles, and broken shells. The water was cold now, but I wanted to walk in it, . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

ALTHOUGH Otto and Esther tried their best to enter the hangover culture, they couldn’t quite manage it. By mid-morning, those of us who had lived through the night before had returned to something like our everyday charm, but . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

OTTO AND ESTHER — parents of Louise, son and daughter-in-law of Artie the Demolition Man and his wife Nancy — returned to the island after nineteen days away and found themselves surrounded by a bunch of zombies walking around in a hangover haze. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

ANARCHY REIGNED around the bar, with Albertine’s relatives invading Lou’s territory to make their own drinks and gathering in knots of three and four to sing the bits and pieces of old songs that they found almost unforgettable. Lou threw in the towel. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

WHEN THE TIME ARRIVED for my reading, I thought of saying something sentimental about the comforts of friends and family, but the crowd had become boisterous to the point of riot, so, instead, I took a deep breath and delivered episode forty-seven of Dead Air, “Still No News from Outer Space,” without a pause. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter...

MY FRIENDS DID SHOW UP, and Albertine’s mother, all of her siblings, all of her aunts and uncles, and most of her cousins, so all the tents were full. I wished that Albertine’s father could have been there, but wishing couldn’t make it so, since he was among the dead, . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/sub...

IN BED, Albertine rolled over onto me and made love to me slowly and thoroughly. She was so tender and affectionate that I began to suspect that she was administering delight as a preventive analgesic against some disappointment. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

THE AUDIENCE THAT NIGHT for my reading of episode forty-six of Dead Air, “Suspicions Confirmed,” was a good one, a Friday crowd, but, looking out at them and beginning to read, I savored the pleasant expectation that Saturday’s turnout would be even better. BECAUSE I was attracted to Mrs. Jerrold, but she was attracted to Mr. Yummy, I was frustrated and jealous, jealous enough to build an electron...

Chapter 46 October 25 Suspicions Confirmed Chance, my friend and master, will surely deign to send again, to help me, the familiar devils of his unruly kingdom! I have no faith, except in him — and in myself. Particularly in him, for, when I sink, he fishes me up again, and grips and shakes me like a rescuing dog . . . So that every time I sink, I do not expect a final catastrophe, but only some a...

“LOU,” I said to Lou, at the bar, where he was pouring free drinks for everyone, “I want to tell you a story.” “Isn’t that what you’ve been doing?” he asked. “All my life,” I said, “but this is a story with a message.” . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

ALBERTINE sat on a stool at the bar for my reading of episode forty-five of Dead Air, “Project Number 102: Electronic Eavesdropper.” She was drinking champagne and beaming, glowing with the relief that had come with the news that in a few days she would be free. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

We sat there for a while in silence. I was trying to think of the right words with which to begin to broach the subject of his buying the hotel as a way out of the world he had come to hate, as a cave in which to hide from it. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

THUNDERING WINDS pummeled the hotel all night, drafts blowing through the windows and under the doors, but by morning, everything was still, and a heavy fog filled the unmoving air. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

BALDY THE DUMMY was miserable throughout his program that night. His wisecracking style was gone. He didn’t even tease Bob as he ordinarily did. He was bitter and snappish. When he got to the end of the show and turned to the news, the Catalog of Human Misery, I had to turn the volume up to hear him. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Ler...

WHEN I WAS A BOY, not yet a teenager, I found myself engaged in several projects that seemed to ask more and more of me — improvements, embellishments, and enlargements that kept me very busy for a boy of my age at that time. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

DICK AND JANE returned, as they had said they would, and Albertine gave them their old room, as she had said she would, but it wasn’t the same as it had been when they left it, because during their absence Alice had redecorated it . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

WHEN I FINISHED, I said, “I would like to say a little something about getting caught up in one’s own work, something I sometimes call the art of self-deception. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

MY AUDIENCE for “Refinements and Improvements,” episode forty-three of Dead Air, consisted of the remaining inmates — Lou, Elaine, Clark and Alice, Artie and Nancy, Louise and Miranda, Tony T and Cutie, Loretta, Theodore and Carolina, Mark, Margot, Martha, Martha and Edward, Margot and Daniel, and five lingering dinner guests. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Obse...

ONE STEP FORWARD, one step back. With two clients for Memoirs While You Wait, I spent hours planning how to deal with the crush of new clients that was clearly on its way, or would be on its way just as soon as Manuel and Porky did their word-of-mouth work. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

IN BED, Albertine asked, “Do you know where the word camouflage comes from, my sweet?” I said, “No, ma petite. I confess that I do not, but I imagine that you are going to tell me that it comes from the name of one of your countrymen, a Capitaine Camouffe who dressed in leafy green and woodsy brown so that he could hide in the trees and bushes when Napoleon was looking for volunteers to lead the R...

THE FISH had begun to smell by the time I read episode forty-two of Dead Air, “Playing to the House.” The odor hadn’t penetrated the hotel yet, but I knew from experience that it would the next day. . . . Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

THE LAST GROUP of potential buyers for the hotel arrived early in the morning. (I call them the last group of potential buyers because two days later I persuaded Lou to buy the place.) Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subscribe

Peter has made a start on Kap’n Klam: The Memoirs of Porky White, Nonpareil American Restaurateur, Entrepreneur, and Raconteur, As Told to Peter Leroy . So far he has only two episodes. The second episode was an attempt to get some of Porky’s wit and wisdom into the book. Get full access to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy at peterleroy.substack.com/subsc...