AFTER MIDNIGHT AT THE EL CHAVALON ~ By D.D. Peattie

After Midnight

at the
El Chavalon

By ~ D. D. Peattie

The last night of my residency in Puerto Vallarta, I thought I’d show the locals a machismo gringo by toasting my somber goodbyes to Mexico in shots at the El Chavalon (where I’d never seen a light-skinned patron enter or leave).

It’s probably the only bar on ‘old-town’s’ Calle Olas Altas (street) actively avoided by tourists for its inhospitality to and lack of same, witnessed by my six hours there in total solitude save for uttered, minimal exchanges with the bartender. A passerby would tell you it was the kind of foreboding place where the music was always a little too loud, where the wee hours after-shift drinks would be had by cabbies and food-servers, hotel clerks and others whose duties sent them into the rough streets late at night. The crack of colliding balls on the 2nd-floor’s pool tables would often get accompaniment from grunts or laughter or arguments of the rough-neck looking locals who (thank God) didn’t hang out in the bar, below.

So stares and El Jimador tequila were my only friends that last night, and they served me well until first light when I weaved my way home, afoot, to collect my huge bags and head for the airport, longing to stay.

Later that October 11th, 2001, in a very different USA than the one I had left , I landed in the USA only to see Army-clad machine gunners guarding the airport -- mindful of and committed to do -- whatever it would take to prevent another September 11, 2001.

(c) 2010 ~ Author D.D. Peattie

Well yes, he claims his name rhymes with orange, sweetie and Tweety, but I've found him to be much more than any colourful, loveable cartoon character could be. Think the newspaper biz, and you're on the right page. This D.D. character is a vet who knows his way around his motorcyle, believes in Joe Cool, and doesn't scrimp on coffee or lively discourse, let alone good bourbon, or tequila . . . though he had me on 'coffee and lively discourse'. Some of his recent writes are hanging around 6'Sentences these days, and many are waiting for his psyche's release. Stay tuned folks, stay tuned.

THANKS Mr Peattie, in the key of D.D., for gracing AT THE BIJOU with your true'bluegrass drawl of the scrawl of what a birthing in the Kentucky commonwealth does to a feller.

~ Absolutely*Kate

and the staff of renown, * AT THE BIJOU *