Monthly Archives: December 2021

JOURNAL ENTRY DECEMBER 22, 1978

December 22, 2021 – 12:18 pm

After the hurricane swept the island, I set off in a leaking sailboat across the trashed sea and landed on a large island peopled by two warring factions. I and my faceless friends were drafted into a guerrilla troop and were deployed in the forest to ambush an unknown enemy. I was ordered to scout […]

By Peter | Posted in 70s | Comments (0)

Fi Suay

December 22, 2021 – 10:48 am

Several years ago I nailed Xmas lights to the roof of my house in Pattaya. Ours was the only one on Moo 9 celebrating the winter holiday on Pearl Harbor Day. The rest of the farangs were too mean-hearted to pursue any happiness other than the emptiness of sex, drugs, and golf. I spoke to […]

By Peter | Posted in family, holiday, Thailand | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

AN XMAS EVE TALE by Peter Nolan Smith

December 22, 2021 – 12:21 am

Nine years ago the holiday sales plummeted to near-zero in New York’s Diamond District 47th Street. The Greater Depression had robbed the middle-class of their imagined wealth and jewelry purchases had been sacrificed to pay mortgages and credit card bills. America as a nation continued to suffer from the banking debacle, the collapse of the […]

By Peter | Posted in 2000s, Drinking, NEW YORK, semi-fiction | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

STUTTERING SIAM by Peter Nolan Smith

December 20, 2021 – 10:24 am

In the 1950s stuttering was considered a possible sign of mental retardation. At age 2 I spoke like a stuck record. My parents thought this disability would pass and I fooled them by mot speaking other than in single syllables. My family became accustomed to my aberrant speech habits, however upon entering Underwood Primary School […]

By Peter | Posted in semi-fiction, Thailand, youth | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Dtik Ang – Stuttering in Thai

December 20, 2021 – 7:25 am

My speech problems were many in my youth across the harbor from Portland, Maine. A stutter coupled with a lisp and stammer forced the school authorities of Falmouth Foresides to test my mental competence. The teachers were surprised to discover through a battery of intelligence exams that I was the smartest child within the school […]

By Peter | Posted in language, superstitions, Thailand | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)