15
THE SKATING PARTY was scheduled for a Friday night. During school that day, I began to exhibit signs of illness. By the end of the day, I had made all the arrangements. I told Veronica that I was coming down with a twenty-four-hour virus and I was sure that I would begin vomiting at about the time that the skating-party bus left the high school lot. She was terribly disappointed, but she accepted Stretch as a substitute escort, since the party meant so much to her. Stretch was surprised. I gave him the tickets and lent him two dollars to make sure that he and Veronica had a good time.
By the time the school day ended, only one thing remained for me to do. On the way home from school, I sat in the seat right behind Porky, and I told him most—but not all—of the story.
“What?” said Porky. “You mean another guy is taking your girl to the skating party? Hey, don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on them. I’ll make them sit right up in the front of the bus and I’ll keep the lights on the whole way back. And I’ll drive straight back to the school, too. He’s not going to get away with anything while I’m driving.”
I opened Our Town and Its People and removed from it a new five-dollar bill. “Here, Porky,” I said, handing it to him. “Do me a favor. Take the long way home.”
Have you missed an episode or two or several?
You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide.
You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed.
You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of “My Mother Takes a Tumble,” “Do Clams Bite?,” “Life on the Bolotomy,” “The Static of the Spheres,” “The Fox and the Clam,” “The Girl with the White Fur Muff,” “Take the Long Way Home,” “Call Me Larry,” and “The Young Tars,” the nine novellas in Little Follies, and Little Follies itself, which will give you all the novellas in one handy package.
You’ll find an overview of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy. It’s a pdf document.
🎧 178: The skating party . . .