1967 SEAFRONT HOTEL .

We moved to the Hotel in October 1967 ,our living space was in the basement ,it was a big change from living in a house with garden , but we soon got used to it .We loved the view of the seafront from the upstairs windows .We were very exited at going into a new business . We set about renovating the Hotel ,with new beds ,carpets and wallpaper , we finished at Easter 68. We started to take up the old carpets at the top of the house and carry them down four flights of stairs , when my Son came to help ,he said why not throw the carpets out the window in to the basement ,and take them on to the beach on Guy Fawkes night,and burn them , which we did , it was all good fun .In those days there were Bonfires all along the beach , children would spend several days taking things on to the beach to make a bonfire. I used to get up at 5 oc in the morning when i was fresh after a good nights sleep,and start wallpapering ,some evenings i would start after dinner and work on untill midnight, my wife was a great help and encouraged me to keep going as we had a lot to do to be ready for Easter. We started the season with mainly Coach Parties ,and i would get up at 6.30 am and switch on all the electrical appliances ready for breakfast and make the tea to take to the bedrooms for Early morning . Tea. which was greatly appreciated by the guest,then it was on to cook the Breakfast. We had a Dumb Waiter which was operated by pulling on the rope to send the serving trays up to the first floor dinning room,my wife would be in the dinning room serving the breakfast and i would would be sending the tea and toast up in the Dumb waiter ,it was very much a team effort . then at 8 30 am i would go to work at my day job , i would get home from work at 60clock in time to send the dinners up and help with the washing up. The Guest had keys but we usually saw them in at night ,we did not Lock up at night till around midnight , i would sit in the window in the dinning room and l00k out over the bay waiting for every one to come in .The season ended toward the end of October ,when we would take a holiday the few years,in London. We stayed in a B/B just off the Edgeware Rd they did a great Breakfast. After a few years we got more adventurous and went to Kenya and Italy . In the 1970 s we went to Rome and Sorrento by train several times as my Daughter was scared of flying as we had a bad experience on our way back from Bancock We would leave Victoria Station at about 10/ 30 am and get to Rome at 1 pm the next day , we would spend about 4 nights in Rome and then go on to Sorrento,. One off our favourite places was Capri , we would get the ferry at about 9 30 am and spend most of the day there it is a very beautiful place .On the ferry they would cook ring doughtnuts which were delicious , a man would be playing a Accordian .It is very beautiful in that part of Italy especially the Amalfi Coast.
Once we were at Annacapri which high up on top of the Island and we asked a Taxi Driver to take us to catch the ferry back to Sorrento it is a very steep twisting road with sheer drops on one side and hairpin bends ,it was very scary as we had Tina and Jannet whith us . the driver drove at high speed and the girls were screaming with excitement and fear ,we were very relived to get to the ferry safely . On another holiday to Italy ,we stayed in Rome and went on the Appian way that was built 2000 years ago by the Romans to see the Catacombs where the Christians were buried in caves .We also saw the Tivoli gardens which had hundreds of waterfalls and fountains very impressive. We also had a holiday at about 1973 , in Kenya and stayed in Mombassa . we went on a excursion to the Rift Valley ,we stopped at a village where some men were dancing with there spears ,jumping up and down chanting when suddenly they surrounded our party ,for a moment they seamed very threating but it was all part of the dance but it did give us a fright . I have since seen a similar thing on TV .