A Couple of Shocks :-(

 

I was horrified - so he HAD seen me! Was there a bit of a cheeky twinkle in his eye or not? I decided the best thing was to pretend I didn’t know what he was talking about, he just grinned and didn’t pursue the matter, but from then on kept referring to my friend Gene.

Despite the inhospitable hours we work and a hectic lifestyle, we still like to keep fit, so I have joined a health club on Knightsbridge - and I walk there and back! My new friends at Ashley Court - Alison & Jackie have taken up ice skating, so a crowd of us go over to Queens whenever we can all get together. I’m not very good, never did have much balance, but it’s a lot of fun. One of the crowd is a young man called John, he’s not bad at skating and comes to my rescue and holds me up. I’d seen him in the bar a few times, but he was always so quiet and didn’t seem to want to join in with us mad lot. John shares a huge room just along the corridor from me, with Brian and David. The room has a very high ceiling with ornately decorated mouldings, I would love to have seen Ashley Court when it was a private house. Brian is one of those rare people who have a car, and he can park it right outside, no problems parking in those days! Some times we will all pile in and go off to the Ice rink at Richmond, just for a change.

I was at the health club one day when CBS came filming for American newsreel. This sort of thing happened a lot, there was always some sort of filming going on in the streets of London, and German and Japanese film crews were often at the 100 Jazz Club in Oxford Street - my second home lol! What fun it would be to see those films now :- )

Jackie and Alison are a fun pair of gals, and we tend to knock around with the same people - Rennie, Lionel, John, Brian, David and Neil, or whoever isn’t working, and we have decided to go on a pub crawl on Sunday morning. We started off at the famous Spaniard’s Inn at Hampstead, then the Bull & Bush. Went for a stroll on Hampstead Heath, playing hide & seek amongst the trees, unfortunately this resulted in our losing half the group, but some of us had to get to work for the late shift, so we hoped the others would make their own way back. It had been an hilarious morning!

Jenny rang, had long chat, she tells me that she would like to become an air hostess and has applied to Pan Am Airways, she says she would rather see the world that way - so ‘Big Plan 65' is off!Naturally I’m very upset, it has been so much fun planning it, but I can understand how Jenny feels, she wants me to apply too, but I am uncertain about my lack of language skills. You have to be able to converse in at least one other language and my meagre knowledge of Italian and German just would not suffice. Jenny has school girl French which she is brushing up on and a reasonable knowledge of Swedish, due to her having a Swedish pen pal and having been engaged to a Swedish boy, albeit for a very short time, but she had intended being able to converse with what she thought were going to be her in-laws. I should be tempted but I always like to do my own thing, I can’t follow other people’s desires, no matter how attractive they might seem.

No longer having something to plan and work towards has come as a big shock, but worse was to follow........

Emilio has been very up and down temperamentally lately, looking straight through me one minute then being very familiar with me the next, can’t say the same about his pal Andrew tho’ - he seems a totally different person, always friendly and smiling and saying ‘Hello Freda’ whenever he rings or comes in the hotel. Just can’t get over it!

Then all became clear......

I really was a complete ingenue - I had so much to learn.

I was on the late shift and Andrew had come round to see Emilio, Andrew popped his head round the door of the switchroom to say hello and ask me to let Emilio know that he’d arrived. On this occasion they were going elsewhere to have dinner, I got the impression they were meeting up with friends. Emilio was in good spirits, and I said I hoped they had a good evening.

Jack, the night porter came in the switchroom and was all for bad mouthing Emilio but I wasn’t having any of it. He raised his brows and said ‘Oh, well you would take that attitude, wouldn’t you.’ If he meant because I just happened to like Emilio, despite his temperament, then he was right, I hated the way everyone seemed to speak ill of him and treated him with such contempt. And I told Jack so. ‘ Well you used to live with a pair of ‘em, didn’t you?’ My heart began to beat very loudly in my chest. ‘What do you mean?’ I asked him, but not wanting to know the answer. ‘ They’re a pair of queers, aren’t they?’ he responded and I could hear the disgust in his voice as he said the word ‘queers’. I could feel my face going red and my silence must have spoken volumes. ‘Oh come on, you must have known’ he jeered. Well I hadn’t known, and I was still finding it hard to believe. Emilio and Andrew? In my eyes I couldn’t imagine two less likely people. Queers, Pansies, Poofs, as they were more commonly known then, where pretty obvious, weren’t they? I had seen the occasional one, usually in Soho, in their flamboyant clothes, coiffed hair and theatrical air, rather like Dickie when he was being silly. Although I have to admit that out in the big world, I doubt if the man in the street realised that Pat & Dickie where homosexuals - especially Pat with his wild curly hair and macho beard. I always thought that these sort of people stood out a mile, it was also an orientation that I simply could not understand. Both Emilio and Andrew were very attractive young men, I felt rather sad that they were lost to we females.

I did not understand how men could be attracted to men, and women being attracted to women - even less. I just could not get my head around it, it all seemed so pointless. I did feel dreadfully sorry though for the way people who were ‘different’ were treated. I understood now why Emilio did not get any respect and I vowed to be even nicer to him from now on. It eventually became clear to me that Andrew had gone through life distrusting everyone, and had erected an icy shield around himself for his own preservation. Once he’d realised that I was friendly with Emilio and not a threat - the ice melted. It was obvious that Emilio needed all the friends he could get, and to have someone like myself who didn’t treat him with derision was not to be sniffed at.

February 13th is Eugen’s birthday, so I’ve got a nice big card for him and asked everyone at Stratters to sign it. I rang him to wish him a happy birthday, he said he was going to go home for a couple of weeks and why didn’t I go too? As the ‘Big Plan’ is now off, I have a bit of spare cash, so I said yes, I thought it was a great idea.

It's a Busy Old Life!

Jenny told me that as I had spent part of the year working abroad I should be able to claim a tax rebate, so I rang the tax office, filled in some forms and today the tax rebate came through yay!!! It will be going into my savings account towards ‘The Big Plan’ as Jenny and I have called our plans to travel around the world.

Moved into Ashley Court, I’ve been told that the room has been newly decorated so I can’t put any posters on the wall - oh boo, and I have a lovely one of Switzerland. The wallpaper is horrendous, heaven only knows where they got it from. I can imagine that it must be extremely expensive to decorate all the rooms but wasn’t anaglypta available in the 60's?

Emilio asked how I liked my room at Ashley Court - I didn’t dare say that the wallpaper gave me nightmares, so told him how pleased I was that the room had a balcony - he seemed surprised to hear that and said he hoped Head Office were charging me double - and I hoped he was joking..........He said he’d seen how pally I was with Gene and asked if he’d asked me out yet, as if I’d tell the management that I was going out with a guest - not even Emilio!

Len Barry is also staying here - he had a couple of UK hits with 1-2-3 and Like a Baby. He’s a very funny guy and he and Gene together are a scary pair - you never know what sort of trick they are going to pull next. Most of the time Len goes around sucking a slice of lemon - ugh! He says it’s good for the throat.

Janet has returned from Paris and we are all meeting up at Bernies’. It’s good for the three of us to get together and have a girly natter. Later we went to The Gary Owen Club in Hammersmith, where I somehow managed to lose my keys to Ashley Court - had to wait outside until someone came along to let me in the main door, then I had to disturb Harry, the caretaker to let me into my room, oo-er, not a good start. He is also going to have to have more keys cut for me.

I knew that Benny Hill lived in the flat opposite Ashley Court, we had met many times in the street, but now I am on the front and on the second floor I can see right into his first floor flat! He never closes the curtains on the huge windows so he is easily seen. I often see him playing a guitar. I wonder if he can see into my room? =:-O I shall certainly make sure the net curtains on my French windows are always in place lol!

Working my favourite shift 3.0pm - 8.0pm, spent most of the evening chatting on the phone with Gene, he suggested that he, Len Barry, myself and a friend should make up a foursome, I rang Jenny to see if she would like to come over - she said she would. Despite it being against the hotel rules, I went up the back stairs to Gene’s room where we waited for Jenny to arrive. I told Gene that I couldn’t be seen openly going out of the hotel with him and we discussed various hilarious scenarios on how to smuggle me out! But then Jenny rang to say that she wouldn’t be able to make it after all. Gene has a penchant for Grand Marnier, a very potent liqueur. We got quite squiffy on it, Len went off to his own room and Gene and I got ‘cosy’, but before things got too comfortable, I told Gene I would have to go. He was absolutely fine about it, I told him I would have to sneak down the back stairs which unfortunately happened to be at the other end of the corridor. I had got part of the way there when I heard the lift arriving at this floor, so I raced back to Gene’s room tapping urgently on the door for him to let me in. As we heard the footsteps pass, I asked Gene to see who it had been - it turned out to be Emilio! The managers suite was on the same floor! Gene kept watch whilst I scurried down the corridor to the back stairs - phew, my heart was beating like the clappers. I collected my coat from off the peg by the switchroom door, hoping no one would ask why I hadn’t yet gone home, instead the porter quipped "What - going already!" It had been nice having a little smooch with Gene (and that’s all it was!) but the ignominy of getting caught in a guests room would have been just too much to bear - I wouldn’t be doing it again!

Gene likes me to give him a wake up call around 8.0am - he told me this morning that I had kept him awake last night - eh? But wouldn’t elaborate :-/

Maybe it was guilt - thinking about another woman when he is now dating Marianne Faithfull :-(   Kathy Seaton, who I got to know through her frequent phone calls to Gene, came round to the hotel in the hope of seeing Gene, I usually let her know when he is here and when he is likely to be available. We were standing chatting by the switchroom door when Gene came

downstairs hand in hand with Marianne, on seeing us he dropped her hand and came over to say hello. Kathy was thrilled to have a little chat with him, she turned to me after they had gone and uttered the immortal words -" Doesn’t Marianne Faithfull look like you" Ha ha ha - I’ve never forgotten them. Shouldn’t think Marianne would quite agree there ;-) Actually the only similarity between us was that we both had long blond hair (but then, didn’t everyone back in the 60's?) blue eyes, fair skin and roughly the same age, but there the resemblance ended. Marianne was a tiny waif of a thing, weighing about a stone less than me, and extremely pretty with a tiny elfin face - so I was immensely flattered by Kathy’s remark.

Just as I was leaving at 3.0pm, Emilio caught me by the glass doors -"I’d like a word with you, Miss B!" I thought he had a look of mock sterness on his face until I heard him say "...and what were you up to last night, hmmm.....?"

Moving Back

Emilio and I had been laughing and giggling together - well, I had been laughing and Emilio giggling ; -) the guest’s blue eyes flickered uncertainly between myself and Emilio, the lips tried to twitch into a smile. Thankfully Emilio, eager to get on with his evening, turned to whisk his friend away with a brief " you two know each, don’t you? " I watched them as they went up the stairs to the managerial suite where they had decided to have room service instead of dining in the restaurant. Chalk and cheese, I thought, one tall, slender and fair - very English the other shorter, stockier, with a head of thick black hair and very Latin - fire and ice, how had two such different people become friends?

Later, Jack, the Head Porter came into the switch room and sat in the spare chair beside me, the floor waiter brought down a tray of coffee and biscuits and put it on the small cupboard beside him. Just to demonstrate the pecking order - Jack had his coffee first then myself and the other porters could have ours. I didn’t feel like chatting to him, I was still puzzling over this strange turn of events, but Jack raised his brows upwards, indicating upstairs and said "they’re still up there then?" Mmm, I answered, scribbling on my pad and trying to look busy, I had no intention of giving Jack any excuse to have a pop at Emilio. Eventually he got up to go, but then stopped at the doorway and looked back - "You know, then...." "Yep" I stopped whatever he was going to say and thankfully I had to answer a few calls on the switchboard.

I felt just stunned for the rest of the evening - of all the people in all the world why did Emilio have to be friends with - Andrew!! This was the guy who had been blanking me for the last three years - and I hadn’t a clue why. We had first met when I went to do overtime at The Grosvenor Court Hotel just across the road in Davies Street, Andrew had been on reception and I had expected him to be as friendly as all the other Grand Metites that I’d met whenever I did overtime. They were usually grateful that the board was being manned otherwise the reception or the porters would have to have covered the board, when they were short of telephonists. Also, the other staff liked to come and have a chat and ask which hotel you worked in and was it a good place to work - all the usual questions. But when I spoke to Andrew he just looked down his nose at me, and spoke briefly, but in the most patronising manner. He certainly had no intention of being friendly. We would often meet at the bus stop after a late shift, but he completely ignored me, even when, on one occasion, Theresa, one of the telephonists at The Grosvenor Court was also their, she chatted to me, and to Andrew and he responded to her, but he stood with his back half turned to me and totally ignored me. When I’d shared a room with Kathy in the garret, there were just two rooms at the top of the narrow winding stairs, and Andrew often visited the girl in the next room, sometimes I would meet him on the stairs but there was never any eye contact and I might as well not bother saying hello....... Then there was the time I met him on the bus going to work, I saw a familiar face and instinctively smiled hello, but he turned away to look stonily out of the window. I think after that I gave up, I accepted he didn’t like me - I just wished I knew why.

Just as I was leaving to go home, Emilio and Andrew were coming downstairs, they were in good spirits, it was good to see Emilio relaxed and genuinely cheerful, not just the usual nervous giggle. I had never seen Andrew like this before, he was a good looking fellow, and his now smiling face made him look very handsome indeed. And as he glanced in my direction the smile did not fade one iota. Emilio saw him to the glass doors, they shook hands and off he went. Emilio turned to me, still smiling "By the way, I have good news for you - there’s a single room at Ashley Court available to you, but I need a quick answer". "Oh great, I’ll go and see it tomorrow" I replied eagerly. "You want to look at it?" Emilio almost choked. "Do you want it - yes or no?" " Yes thank you" I said meekly, "Good, I went to a lot of trouble to get that for you - don’t you dare turn it down!" He scowled at me beneath his thick, dark brows and I thought aw - he’s so sweet when he scowls like that!

Well I did go to Ashley Court the next day to have a look at the room - and what a surprise I got! No pokey old garrett, no looking over the bins in the back yard, I didn’t even have to climb to the top floor. It was a single room on the front over looking Queensgate, on the second floor - and it had it’s own private balcony! It was a long narrow room, it had a sink built into a cupboard, a large Victorian wardrobe, dressing table and chest of drawers and a small cupboard next to the single bed pushed up into the corner of the room, but best of all - double French windows which opened onto the balcony. It was going to cost me £2.10.0 a week, but worth every penny lol! I knew that a single room with shared services in central London (but not as posh an address as this!) would cost at least £5 per week, and nothing provided. We had maid service, laundry service, breakfast and social facilities such as the bar, TV room and games room. There were small kitchens situated on every floor and more bathrooms than I managed to get through during my time at Ashley Court - and I did attempt to try them all out lol!

I was at the switchboard the next morning when I took a call and heard a soft voice say "Freda?" "Yes" I replied desperately trying to recognise the voice, "It’s Andrew, could I speak to Emilio please?" I nearly fell off my chair in surprise. They seemed to be on the phone for ages, but eventually Emilio came downstairs to give me a cheerful ‘good morning’. I was on with my supervisor ‘Angie’, and even she remarked on how cheerful Emilio seemed to be. Angie was in her late fifties and a wise old soul - everybody’s shoulder to cry on, and thankfully she did not seem to have a ‘down’ on Emilio. So, perhaps knowing he had ‘back-up’ in the switchroom, at least, he spent quite a lot of the morning talking to us. Angie was very happy that I was now going back to live in Ashley Court and pleased with Emilio for working so hard in getting the room for me. Unfortunately I could only give Pat & Dickie a week’s notice otherwise I would be paying for two lots of lodgings and I couldn’t afford that. I would miss their mad cap company, but not all the travelling!

 

Have to go and cut the grass - so sorry - no cliff hanger lol! ;-)

New Year 1965

New Year 1965

Despite having done lots of overtime at the various hotels that belonged to Grand Metropolitan, I still hadn’t managed to get round them all, similarly, although I’d met many of my fellow ‘Grand Metites’- there were still many, many more that I hadn’t, and Emilio was one of them. I knew absolutely nothing about him when I went back to work at Stratters, other than that it was his first assistant managers job - a job that was the absolute pits. At least as a humble telephonist I knew where I was in the pecking order - the bottom. Whereas every head of department seemed to think they were the most important person - enormous egos made for lots of upsets amongst the staff. The assistant manager’s job was to make the manager’s job as easy as possible and keep the staff in order - and consequently take all the flack. It needed a calmer and more confident type of person than Emilio was, to succeed in this tricky position.

Maybe he and I got on ok because I had no reason not to respect him. I knew he would have earned his current position in no easy manner. Everyone on the 5 year training course would have had to work in the kitchen, restaurant, bar, control, reception, become head receptionist and then move on to assistant manager, where they would have to develop the hide of a rhinoceros and the wisdom of Solomon. Mitch, the head porter, treated Emilio with the utmost disdain, I found it painful to see and wished I could have advised Emilio to ignore him, unfortunately he would give vent to his Latin temper which, of course, only made matters worse. Also, I had come back from Switzerland with the intention of learning Italian - I much preferred the lilting, sing-song way of speaking to German. Emilio seemed pleased that I knew something of his language and was happy to help. He found it highly amusing to discover that I shared a flat with two fellers and teased me remorselessly - despite my protestations that they were more interested in each other than in me.

The bizarre thing was, when I wrote and told my mother that I was sharing a flat with friends of Jenny’s - a couple called Pat and Dickie - intending to give the impression that they were a married couple - my mother wrote back that she was glad I was settled, but mentioned her concern about ‘the couple’, " why do I think that they are two fellers?" she asked, and it was obvious that she could not quite believe what she was asking, nevertheless this was what she thought and wanted me to put her right. I was dumbfounded, I would have thought that anyone would automatically think ‘a couple called Pat & Dickie’ would be a male/female couple. I decided to come clean, even though I knew my mum, with her straightlaced attitude would disapprove, because I wanted to know how on earth she had come to that conclusion. She said she couldn’t explain it, it was just a feeling she had - scary! The last thing a daughter wants is for her mother to be able to see into her life with such accurate perceptions.........lol.

I was happy to have Emilio back after his few days away, he makes me laugh with his rather self-conscious flirtyness. I wished I could have got to know him before he became part of the management, as the gulf between the ‘plebs’ and the management was one difficult to bridge (yes - I know I have mnaged it in the past.....) - especially during working hours........I liked him a lot and wished I could instil in him a little confidence, he didn’t appear to have any at all and seemed to veer from vulnerable to temper tantrum, with very little in between.

We had a belated Christmas/ New Year Party at The Londoner Hotel just further along Welbeck Street, I went there often to do overtime. The entrance hall was enormous and so was the restaurant, so it was an ideal place for the two hotels to have a bit of a do. Our pay was pretty dire and so was the food which we had on duty and was allegedly part of our pay - but when it came to celebrating, it seemed no expense was spared. There was lots of lovely food, party hats and streamers, plenty of booze - enough for us all to get a little sloshed, music and dancing. I was a bit miffed when Dottie claimed Emilio for a slow dance and I had the ‘pleasure’ of dancing with Alasdair Fraser - who had two left feet and a broom stuck up the back of his jacket. As soon as there was a break in the music I switched partners with Dottie and Emilio didn’t seem to mind at all - he held me very tightly - and I didn’t mind that at all ;-) I also managed to get him for the last dance, he held me tightly, his cheek pressed against mine. I even managed to get a kiss under the mistletoe - albeit a chaste kiss on the cheek! And as it was now so late, he said I could stay at Stratters tonight. There was much teasing for days afterwards about our ‘flirting’, which merely brought raised brows a deep, noisy sigh from Mitch.

9th January and the hotel is coming alive again - we have an American Pop Star called Johnny Thunder staying here. Johnny was a member of legendary Groups The Inkspots and The Drifters. He had a self-penned hit in 1963 of ‘Loop De Loop’. I confess to having got this information from his website, as back in 1965, I had never heard of him. He was here to appear on ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’. He seemed quite alone, he spent much of his time in the front hall talking to the staff. I was happy to talk to him, he was a tall, handsome, cheerful guy and when he asked to take me out to lunch, I was happy to accompany him. There was a really nice café/restaurant in Bond Street called ‘Sands’, it was the ‘in’ place to go, I loved sitting at one of the pavement tables sipping tall mugs of hot chocolate topped with swirls of thick cream and cinnamon, and hoping to catch a glimpse of 60's supermodels Jean Shrimpton or Celia Hammond as The Lucie Clayton School of Modelling was nearby, so was the very popular fashion store - Fenwicks. So this was the place I suggested we could go to. The place was crowded, but we managed to get a table downstairs, after perusing the menu, we both decided we liked the sound of the steak and salad served on wooden boards - well it seemed different - lol! But it turned out to be the most difficult meal I have ever attempted to eat, trying to eat off large blocks of wood on a small table was fraught with problems, the boards wobbled every time we tried to cut into the meat, and the salad went in all directions. It could have been very embarrassing, but Johnny had a fabulous sense of humour, he kept me and the rest of the diners in stitches, but in the end, I gave up and settled for a calorie laden dessert to fill the empty spaces.

We also have Film Star Dean Stockwell staying here. I’ve always thought he was one gorgeous guy, ever since I saw him as a child star in the film ‘The Boy with Green Hair. He has appeared in hundreds of films over the years and more recently, he was the star of ‘Quantum Leap’. He’s a very friendly feller and is happy to stop and give me his autograph and have a chat. The strange thing about him, and quite in contrast to his ordinariness, is the way he dresses - all in black, topped by an all enveloping long black cape. He sails through the front hall, his cape flowing behind him and out into the street, seemingly totally unaware of his, er rather unusual appearance. I had the temerity to ask him why he dressed that way and he said it was just his style, he felt comfortable with it. I wake him every morning and take his breakfast order when I am on the early shift and he usually cracks a joke or two - he reminds me very much of Gene in this respect - he’s such an easy going guy, no ‘starriness’ about him at all.

I take it that Gene Pitney is on his way here too, as already we are getting phone calls for him. Tony Hall rang to say he was coming in the hotel and would stop by to say hello. How long ago is it that I first spoke to Tony Hall? So much water seems to have passed under the bridge since then, and I feel that I have known him for ages and yet we have never met. He came in later accompanying The Righteous Brothers. I’m really quite surprised to find I have written this in my diary, as I have no recollection at all of having met The Righteous Brothers. I do remember meeting Tony Hall though, we shook hands and said the usual things. He was also accompanied by his assistant, a young man called Jimmy, who rang me the next day to ask if I would like to accompany him to see Ready Steady Go, but I’m working - sigh.......

And another party - at The St Ermine’s Hotel this time. Went back to Ashley Court with Dottie to get changed into our glad rags. Had most enjoyable time, a crowd of us went back to Ashley Court and into Lionel’s room for coffee, chatting until 5.30am. Dottie is on the early shift so had already gone to bed, rather than disturb her I accepted the loan of the floor in Alison’s room..........

Johnny Thunder has gone home and Gene has arrived! I heard his familiar voice out in reception - he got quite a surprise when I went out to say hello, not realising that I was back. He asked if that meant that my predecessor had gone, I assume he meant Rona, who, by all accounts had been using Stratters as a way to ‘drum up business’ ;-) he had found the ‘attentions’ of Rona not quite what he had been used to from the telephonists lol! We had always treated him with respect - as he had treated us. I would loved to have known all the juicy details, but, well, you can’t ask, can you? Suffice to say that Rona was now ‘persona non grata’, in fact no one even wanted to talk about her - bringing the hotel into disrepute and all that.

Mitch tells me, with some asperity, that Emilio is expecting a friend round for dinner this evening - nothing wrong with that, the assistant managers didn’t get much in the way of perks, but this was one of them. They would havetheir girl friends round or more often than not, an assistant manager from another hotel in the Group, where no doubt they would share their highs & lows of their chosen profession. Good for him, I thought, he needs someone to have a good natter with, and hopefully give a bit of a boost to his sagging confidence.

Emilio popped his head around the door of the switchroom and asked me to let him know when his friend arrived but then stayed talking to me. We were standing chatting by the switchroom door, he seemed in good spirits, suddenly his eyes brightened and a faint flush spread across his face as he looked past me and I guessed his friend had arrived. I turned to see who his guest was - and my jaw hit the floor as I found myself gazing into a pair of familiar blue eyes...........

Christmas 1964

I have agreed to work over Christmas and Emilio has arranged for those who are working to stay in the hotel, so hopefully we will have some fun......... even Emilio said it should be interesting.........sometimes he says things with such a naughty twinkle in his eye..........

The guests have been very generous to us girls and apart from money we have received nylons (lol still waiting for tights to come along) chocolates and Theatre tickets - not to mention invitations to dinner ;-)

Christmas Eve - I am working 12.0pm til 6.30pm. Met Jenny after work so went to do some later night shopping. From November the shops in the West End would stay open quite late to enable workers to do their Christmas shopping - 24 hour opening was still decades away..........sigh. Then went to Trafalgar Square to join in the Carol singing - it was a lovely sight with all the beautiful Christmas lights. Then met up with Bernie and some of the staff from Stratters and The Grosvenor Court Hotel at The Woodstock pub, which is just across the road from Stratters, for a few drinks. When Dottie, my fellow telephonist, finished work at 10.30pm we met in her room, the lads on reception finished at 11.0pm and then they joined us. Emilio knocked on the door and asked us to keep the noise down - but then gave us a couple of bottles of wine lol!

My room was comfortable, but I found it difficult to sleep. On at 8.0am Christmas Day - Emilio asked what time I had got to sleep - I think it was somewhere around 2.0am - he just raised his brow and gave me a knowing look :-/ Whatever was he thinking............?

We were all invited into the Restaurant for a very good Christmas lunch, so different from last year when Alasdair Fraser put the kibosh on any possible frivolity. Emilio kept giving me funny looks, but think he was feeling a bit out of his depth, he tends to giggle and pull funny faces when he’s feeling awkward (aw bless!) He bought us all drinks, and at 2.0pm I finished my shift and went over to Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair to work till 6.0pm and it was more drinking there.....Went back to Stratters to keep Dottie company whilst she worked the evening shift - we were feeling rather giggly by this time as what few guests we had in the hotel kept buying us drinks.....Emilio came in and spoke to us rather sternly, which rather knocked the Christmas spirit out of us, but then came back to apologise and bought us more drinks.......He fussed round us all evening asking if there was anything we wanted. The night porters didn’t turn up, so me’n Dottie stayed to cover the switchboard and the boys stayed on Reception until midnight then we all went to Dottie’s room again for another party.

Stayed in bed late then had a leisurely bath and breakfast in my room - ah this is the life ;-) We all had dinner in the restaurant again, Emilio said he could hear me giggling last night at our party..........Working 2.0pm til 8.30pm, met Pat & Dickie later at the Gresham Ballroom in Islington, had great fun, then singing all the way home in the snow - oh didn’t I mention it had been snowing?........Yep - it snowed at Christmas in those days ;-) Fell into bed 2.0am.

On late shift today, so cooked Christmas lunch with Pat & Dickie, Jenny came over too. Sorry that I had to leave them playing party games to go into work :-( Emilio in and out of the switch room all evening - nothing better to do, as the hotel is so quiet, eventually he said I could go home early. They were still partying at Pat & Dickie’s and I have the feeling that this is when we took the silly photographs........

By New Year’s Eve I was feeling pretty wobbly - I’d done a lot of over time over Christmas - we get double pay and very well looked after at other hotels, so have to earn a bit extra whilst we can - and too many late nights. Jenny has invited me to a party tonight and as it is New Year’s Eve, I feel I have to force myself to go - can’t stay in on the best night of the year. The party turned out to be at Cardew Robinson’s home. He was popularly know as ‘Cardew the Cad’ due to his part in the film ‘Fun at St Fanny’s’ circa 1956. He was on TV Saturday 1st April in ‘Carry On Up the Khyber’ playing the Kafir. A tall skinny fellow with a big boney nose, he was never a Star, but popped up all over the place in films and on TV. The house was bursting with partygoers, he seemed to be a very affable chap who didn’t mind all these strange people in his house. There was a large conservatory at the back of the house where there was plenty of food, drink and dancing. Didn’t leave until 3.15 am, went to Jenny’s, who lives out in Clapham, for a couple of hours sleep then on to work for the early shift.........I even managed to do an extra shift at The Green Park Hotel in the afternoon - talk about burning the candle at both ends :-/ Joined the boys in mulled wine and hot mince pies before falling into bed.......

I finally asked Emilio about finding me a room at Ashley Court, and a couple of days later he got back to say that there was a double room available. Well, I didn’t want to seem ungrateful, and I know rooms at Ashley Court are not easy to come by, but I really didn’t want to share. I’ve told him that I’d rather hold out for a single room. He sighed, raised his eyebrows and told me not to be so fussy - but he will make further enquiries.......

I have started knitting again, I’d seen this black mohair wool in Marshall & Snelgrove - a rather old fashioned and slightly posh store just next to Stratters. I used to go in there just to use the ladies toilets because they were so grand, very large and decorated in beautiful art deco tiles. Anyway, I noticed the wool was half price, and never one to resist a bargain, I looked around for a suitable pattern. I settled on a button up jacket, but as I got knitting, noticed the dye coming off on my hands! I took the wool back and they exchanged it for another batch, but the same thing happened. The assistant suggested washing the wool to see if that made a difference, but if I wanted to continue buying the wool, I could have it at a bargain price. I found that washing the wool did solve the problem of the dye coming off, so I took up the offer of buying the whole batch. With so much wool, I decided to turn the jacket into a coat. When it was finished I lined it with a leopard print silk lining . With some of the left over wool I knitted a matching bag, lined it with the same material and attached a long chain necklace in place of a strap.

As Emilio worked over Christmas and New Year, he is now having a few days off, and it’s not the same without him. I can understand to a certain extent why he is not very popular with the rest of the staff, poor Emilio - he’s his own worst enemy, but I can see the vulnerable side to him and for as long you treat him with a certain amount of respect - he’s just fine. Well apart from the sudden temperamental outbursts.........

But then, there was something I didn’t know about him that others did................

Gene Pitney

First thing I do when I come in from work is to switch on my radio, I was pleased today, to find that they were playing one of Gene's records and then they talked about him at some length - "Oh a programme on Gene - how nice" I thought, until the News Reader ended by saying "Gene Pitney, who died today aged 65"!!!!!

I simply could not believe it, Gene was always to fit and loved to tour and meet his fans - he had only just celebrated his 65th Birthday on 17th February, and he's just a few weeks older than me.

It's hard to believe that he won't be touring GB again, he came regularly, and I always hoped he would come to a theatre locally. I haven't seen him for a while, but I have fond memories of the fun we had during the 1960s.  His live shows were extraordinary.

What a sad loss - Gene was unique.

A very sad Freda :-(

Gene Pitney was found dead at a hotel

-- Obituary: The Rockville Rocket

Added Photos

Just a quickie to let you know I've added photos to my last entry. Hope they give you a laugh!

Freda

Home Again!

Saturday November 21st 1964

Went to see Craig in ‘No, No, Nannette’ at the Lyceum, Sheffield. Craig has a nice lilting voice, which is just right for this light hearted musical, he will not hit the charts again, but he’s moving on, which some Pop Stars never do. He remembered to tell the stage doorman to expect us, which was nice. He also remembered that many years ago he promised to give me a blue shirt that he used to wear on stage in his teenage years, in those days he used to wear black trousers and different coloured denim type shirt - I liked him best in the blue one and when he decided to wear a suit instead, I asked if I could have the blue one as a souvenir - he agreed, but I never got it :-(

We chatted about what each of us had being doing and I told him that I had just returned from working in Switzerland - I could almost see the cogs clanking as he was thinking " so that’s why you haven’t been jumping out at me from every corner recently" ;-) Mum took a photo of us and he kissed me goodbye, with yet another promise to send me the blue shirt.........

Sunday

Baby Susan was Christened this morning and I’m a Godmother along with my sister Mavis. We intended to catch the bus back home, but as me and mum stood at the bus stop I began to feel very strange, I desperately wanted to sit down then everything began to whirl in front of me - and according to mum I didn’t just fall into a crumpled heap as I fainted, but fell straight backwards onto the pavement! I came to after a couple of minutes to find a strange man hovering over me muttering words from the bible =:-O Mum said he just happened along and she asked him to help her get me onto my feet. He had a bible in his hand and continued praying as we stood there - goodness knows what passersby must have thought of this strange scenario! Luckily, we had friends who lived nearby and once I’d had a sit down with a nice cup of hot tea, I felt much better. Mum insisted on me going to see the Doctor, but he only confirmed what I already suspected - too much rushing around over the last couple of weeks, I suppose it all suddenly caught up with me. I did feel a fool though - I just wasn’t the fainting type.

Spent the week visiting my sisters and their children, also managed to get over to Rotherham to see Lorna and her little daughter, Yvonne, it was good to have a good natter and catch up on both our lives. Our phone rang several times with people I’d worked with in Grand Met, word had got around that I was back and there was no shortage of job offers! My determination to get a flat and work office hours was crumbling....... Then Mrs Angus rang saying that if I should decide to go back to work for Grand Met, she hoped I would consider her needs first as she was severely short of telephonists again! And so it was that on Monday November 30th I went back to London to go back to work at Stratters!

My brother in law drove me to the station to catch my train, I went straight to Stratters where everyone welcomed me back - even the dour manager Alasdair Fraser who hadn’t been able to get rid of me fast enough before! Met Jenny from work and we went over to the flat where I was going to rent a room from her friends, Pat & Dickie. Crouch End seems a long way out when you are used to being in central London, but it’s a nice big flat on the ground floor of a large purpose built apartment block, off from a long  corridor there are two good sized bedrooms, a kitchen dining room and a nice big lounge with large bay windows. The boys pay £7.50 a week and I have agreed to pay £3 for my own room and use of the entire flat. I like Pat and Dickie, they are a fun couple of guys - gay guys I should add. Pat was quite a butch looking feller with a mass of curly dark hair and matching beard whereas Dickie was slim and blonde and a bit silly, although I think a lot of his silliness was put on. I settled in quite well and Jenny came over often, we’d all go out for a drink then go back to the flat with a takeaway and play charades or silly games, and glad to say that we took lots of photos so it’s nice to look back on these carefree occasions. The only trouble was, working shifts and so far away from central London became a bit of a problem, there were times when I was asked to work late because of late arrivals when all the night staff would be run off their feet. On these occasions it was rather a long way for a taxi to take me home and I’d be asked to stay over night in the hotel, which was also a bit of a problem when I had no overnight things with me, or make up, tooth brush etc. This was the 1960's and, along with no all night transport, these things were not supplied in hotels.

The assistant manager at Stratters now, was a rather excitable Italian called Emilio, he had quite a temper, which would erupt quite suddenly, but also subsided just as quickly. No one seemed to like him very much, but I did, he was a good looking man, in a dark Italian sort of way, and despite his temper, seemed quite sweet and vulnerable at times and we got along quite well. The other assistant manager was Casolani who had been Reception Manager when I last left Stratters. It was Emilio who suggested that perhaps I should think about going back to live at Ashley Court, he said to let him know if I was interested and he would arrange it for me.

It’s lovely meeting up with all my old friends again, of course everyone is asking about Eugen, but at least they can now see that we did not elope lol!  We are keeping in touch and he is much amused that I have ended up back at Stratters.  Gene Pitney has arrived, we had quite an emotional greeting in the front hall - right in front of Emilio, who teased me about ‘hon-nobbing’ with the Stars lol!

Dennis has been in touch and has invited me to a Phillip’s Records Party. My diary says that there were lots of Stars there but not who they were! There was an actor called Paul Maklou who looked a lot like Gene Pitney. Dennis made me laugh by introducing me as ‘somebody in hotels’ lol! Making out that I was more into ownership rather than a mere telephonist. It was an interesting afternoon, then on the drive home, Dennis slowed down in dense traffic, but the car behind didn’t. Unfortunately, the driver who’d gone into the back of us was a Ukranian acrobat who was appearing at The London Palladium, and didn’t speak much English. He seemed very contrite, I felt rather sorry for him, Dennis decided to trust in what he said and call in at the Theatre to sort out repairs to his car.

There’s a dance on at Ashley Court, so me and Bernie are going, she now works at The Kensington Palace Hotel just off Kensington High Street and only a few minutes walk from Queensgate, so I shall be staying with her tonight. It was great meeting all my old friends again who live at Ashley Court, had a very good evening, all the time I lived at Ashley Court, we never got much chance to go in the ballroom, a long balcony ran along the length of the room and it was a great place to go to cool down after all the frenetic dancing. Met a nice young German called Klaus. Afterwards we went in Lionel’s room for another party, he invited me and Klaus to a party tomorrow night, celebrating his girlfriend’s 21st Birthday. Finally got to bed about 2.0am but me’n Bernie talking all night.

Had another good time at Gay’s 21st Birthday Party, managed toget a lift back to Ashley Court where I’d been offered an overnight stay in one of the rooms on a camp bed, but after spending 20 mins trying to put it up, decided that the floor would do very nicely, it was 2.30 am and I needed my beauty sleep ;-) But this has shown me that to continue with my social life I need to live in central London, so I shall be asking Emilio to find that room for me at Ashley Court..........

My Grandson!

Just been copying the various photos that my son emails to me from time to time, onto disc so here are a few of them. :-)

Freda

Journey Home

 

It’s a pity that I didn’t start my journey homewards a week earlier, as on Saturday November 13th Gene Pitney was in concert at Sheffield’s City Hall and Monday November 16th Craig Douglas is appearing in ‘No, No, Nannette’ at the Lyceum Theatre - ah well - can’t have everything I suppose, and I’m finding my journey across various Countries most interesting.

I spent a cold draughty night on Janet’s garret room floor. Despite it being November, there was no heating, and no hot water with which to get washed in the morning. There was a depressing view from her window of a jumble of fire escapes, (think West Side Story lol) My small room at The Importner with its view of quaint tiled roof tops and my own basin with hot & cold running water, was sheer luxury compared to this.

After our mid night chat about Janet’s dilemma over the seductive husband, I was most intrigued to meet the man who was causing her so much anguish. Janet was a lovely lass, and I couldn’t have imagined her getting herself into this sort of situation . But when I met him, I understood - testosterone on legs lol! A nice looking man, rather than strictly handsome - not in the league of pretty boy Sasha Distel, or ugly mug Serge Gainsbourg, but somewhere in between. He gave me a disarming friendly smile and shook my hand firmly, when Janet introduced us, but the way he lit his galoise whilst looking at me with those sexy brown eyes, blowing the smoke high into the air [which was just as well, other wise I would have sneezed and spoilt his seduction technique ;-) ] then blowing out the match favouring me with another covert sensual glance. My heart hammered in my chest, I did not care for this man at all - I would have run a mile from him, I understood only too well how he could affect a young girl ( in fact any female...) The alarm bells were ringing, my heart was pounding with apprehension rather than attraction, I felt the sexual tension that he seemed able to generate at will. Janet said that when she had gone for her interview with the family, the husband had been away on business, and as he was often away she felt she could cope.

I told her later he ought to wear a sign across his forehead proclaiming "This man is dangerous" because that’s how he struck me - a danger to women anyway. Janet said that despite her better judgement, she felt an enormous attraction towards him which she was finding increasingly hard to resist, but knew it would allend in tears. Before I left Paris to continue my journey, Janet promised she would look for another job - I just hoped it would be pretty damn quick - the man was a menace!

Janet wasn’t able to come to the station with me with the consequence that I found myself at the wrong station, I had a mad dash to the Guar Du Nord and missed my train. Eugen had arranged to meet me so I had to send a cable off to him (don’t ask - I can’t remember why it was a cable rather than phone, I can only assume he wasn’t on the phone at the flat - and no mobiles lol!) Unfortunately, catching a later train meant that we would have less time to spend together before I had to catch my connection to take me to The Hook, for my boat home :-(

He managed to meet me ok, having got my cable, we walked around Amsterdam with its tall narrow houses, cobbled streets and myriad of bicycles. Eugen showed me the hotel where he worked and we went in for a drink and then stayed for something to eat. He said what a shame it was that we had so little time and suggested that I stayed overnight at the flat he shared with his friend Kees, and catch the boat tomorrow. So I cancelled my booking and went back to his flat, climbing the steepest stairs I had ever climbed in my life - I felt as though I wanted to go up on my hands and knees, they seemed to be almost vertical! ( and coming down was even more terrifying!) I met Kees and another friend who looked after me until Eugen had finished his late shift at the hotel. We chatted until the early hours, Kees, who worked for KLM Dutch Airlines, said he was on standby and would probably be leaving very soon, so if I wanted to stay a bit longer, that was ok by him!

I spent yet another cold night in a sleeping bag on yet another floor, but Kees was up very early and said I could go and get into his warm bed lol! The only thing was - he shared the bedroom with Eugen - there were just two very narrow (and very hard!) bunks against opposite walls - oh well...........I was too cold to care.........

Tuesday November 17th 1964 and I was expecting to be in London today, but still in Holland and no sign of my leaving yet.......I’m having to send my parents postcards on a daily basis with the latest change in plans!

Eugen and I had breakfast together before he went off to work, I tidied round the flat and during the morning his Landlady came to bring me a cup of coffee and introduce herself. She popped in several times before Eugen came back for lunch - and again afterwards....... I played records and wrote letters in between visits from the Landlady ;-) then went to meet Eugen from work. Everyone in Holland seems to speak English and I had no difficulty in asking for directions. We wandered the pretty streets of Amsterdam for a while then went for a drink and a meal. I was somewhat apprehensive at sleeping in the same room as Eugen for the first time.........but he gave me a kiss goodnight then popped into his own bed and was soon fast asleep :-/

He brought me a cup of tea in the morning before leaving for work. Frau Koulie continued with her popping in every five minutes, so I took myself off for a wander round the shops, bought lots of postcards and sent some of them off to Eugen’s family. He is working until 11 o’clock tonight, but Frau Koulie came up and a friend of Kees & Eugen’s stopped by, so we all watched TV until Eugen came back. After the others had gone, we had quite a chat about what we both wanted out of life, and Eugen made it quite clear that his intention was to travel - settling down was not part of his plans...... I told him of mine and Jenny’s plans to travel, he said he hoped we would meet up again during our respective travels.

Thursday November 19th 1964 In the morning went to the station to finally book my berth on the boat home, as I will be travelling overnight. Spent the afternoon with Eugen walking and having fun, we have a nice easy friendship, and although I would have liked more, I too want to travel, so it’s a dilemma that he has settled for the both of us!

It was a nice easy journey home, slept well on the boat - no seasickness. I shared a cabin with another girl, and luckily we got on well together. Chatting with my fellow passengers on the train to London made the journey go quite quickly. Although it was very early in the morning, Jenny met me at the station and took me back to her place before going on to work. I went to see everyone at Stratters, it’s great to be back and Mrs. Angus wants me to go back to work there - how can I tell her that going back to working shifts is not in my plans at all......Went round to see my friend Kathy in her offices in Hanover Square, before meeting Jenny, who also works in Hanover Square, for lunch, then we went back to her office where she suggested I ring Tony Hall - he was surprised to hear that I was back in London and suggested meeting up for a drink sometime. That evening Jenny took me to a dinner party she’d been invited to, which was all jolly good fun - it had been quite a day - meeting up with everyone, and all I wanted now was to sleep away what was left of the night. But on the way home, I happened to catch sight of an early morning news placard - it said that Ventriloquist Dennis Spicer, had been killed in a car crash! It completely ruined what had been a mad, crazy but most enjoyable day. Dennis was only 29 and had just been a hit with the Queen in the Royal Variety Show - at last his career had hit the big time...... I held very fond memories of meeting Dennis on my 17th birthday at the Empire Theatre, where he sang Happy Birthday to me from the stage. We met up afterwards in the office of Manager, Johnny Spitzer, where we had a little chat and he gave me an autographed photograph. This was when I was still working at the Grand Hotel, where Johnny Spitzer lived, and he had arranged the whole thing for me. I never forgot Dennis, he was such a lovely guy - and now he was dead. The crash happened on a notoriously dangerous road just a few miles from where I now live :-(

Jenny drove me to the station to catch my train to Sheffield and my sister Barbara and her husband Ron met me at the other end. First went to see their new baby daughter Susan, who had been born on October 5th, then home. Watched ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ on TV in the evening - The Beatles were on. Mum works in a sweet shop in the centre of Sheffield and she said that Craig had come in one day, she told him that her daughter used to be his Fan Club secretary and that we were coming to see his show. He said that we should go round to see him afterwards and he would tell the stage doorman to expect us.......

Going Home!

My plans are on course for my journey home, I have sent some of my luggage ahead of me so that I will be travelling as light as possible. Whilst sitting in the Café Seeger a tall, blond young man stopped by to say hello to the friends I was sitting with, he acknowledged me with a nod of his head and off he went. The next time I was in there, he came in again but stopped to introduce himself to me this time, his English wasn’t bad at all so we were able to converse quite well. He said his name was Tom and on close quarters I thought what a handsome fellow he was. He was one of the pupils who went to the same private school where Roman and Kaspar boarded, but he informed me that he had a flat in the Heights of Rotmonten. (where Mrs. B lives!) We met a few times after that and I found myself very attracted to this admittedly young (19) but very attractive and intelligent young man. He offered to show me his flat and said he’d cook me lunch (!!) He picked me up in a rather snazzy red open topped sports car, and when I discovered that he actually owned the flat - I began to realise that this was not your average school boy lol! Me, having been brought up on a Council Estate, and this young man, who went to a posh private school, ran around in the sort of car most 19 year olds can only dream about and owning property - well, it was obvious that we were eons apart, and not to mention the 4 years difference in our ages lol!

But no matter - I would soon be leaving Switzerland and it would be a permanent goodbye to all my young school buddies! Roman had given me his address in Germany and was keen to keep in touch, he said to look him up when I went on my travels. I was touched at the sadness in the goodbyes of both Roman and Kaspar - but some friendships are best left as just happy memories.........

I will keep in touch with Rosemary and Annie, they have been such good friends and I am genuinely sorry to be saying goodbye to them - but we have exchanged addresses - so we may yet meet up again...........

I am anxious to meet up again with Janet, her letters have hinted at things which she is finding hard to put into words and says she will ‘tell me all about it’ when we meet up.......

Friday November 13th 1964

My last day in Switzerland - for now anyway - but I will be back! It has been a mad round of last goodbyes and exchanging addresses. Hans Uli gave me an extra 200fr and said that for an English girl - I wasn’t too bad at all - is that what they call a back-handed compliment??? Frau Geiger actually had a tear in her eye and Olgi was full of praise for me - bless her. On reflection - I think that both Switzerland and I found each other a bit of a culture shock but we somehow got by. I certainly learned some hard lessons, but I’m not sure that I did enough to change the minds of the Swiss that the English are a ‘filthy, lazy lot ‘ :-(

It was a cold rainy November day but the train journey through Switzerland was quite beautiful. At the French border, the rather formidable looking Border Guards got on the train to check our passports - and I never did get over the sense of un-ease - memories of espionage films lol!

The train was late getting in and I had to race to get my connection to Paris - it was only then that I realised I still had too much luggage. I could see that the train was about to pull out, but thankfully a guard saw me rushing and delayed it enough for me to jump on with the help of a passenger who helped me on with my luggage. He turned out to be an Italian who worked in the German part of Switzerland, so we managed to converse in a bizarre mix of German and Italian lol!

Janet met me at the station and as soon as I’d dumped my luggage in her tiny garret room, we went off for coffee and crepes at one of the many wonderful Parisian café’s ( memories of the film ‘Charade’!)

Later that night we went to one of the many jazz cellars where we met up with a bunch of Germans lads, we had lots of fun except for the rain. We walked back to Janet’s garret with the boys who were in a singing mood lol, we got soaked to the skin but we didn’t mind at all. ;-)

Sunday morning we got up somewhere around 9.0am and went off to the same café for more coffee and crepes with tia maria poured over it - an interesting sort of breakfast.......Then to the Eiffel Tower - it was very wet and windy but we managed to take some photographs without being blown off the top. Then to the truly beautiful Basilica, and on to Montmarte. I really loved the wonderful arty atmosphere and was happy to pose whilst I had my portrait ‘drawn’ on gold foil.

We walked the length of The Champs Elysees with all it’s wonderful boutiques, unfortunately it is not a place where two young girls could walk without being accosted every five minutes grrrr!

We stopped at The American Drug Store for something to eat, then round the famous stamp market where ‘Charade’ was filmed. We met up with Janet’s boyfriend Aurelio who also used to work for Grand Met in London, and we all went off to see the Beatle’s film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ - most enjoyable - it was nice to hear English spoken again - if you can call ‘scouse’ English ;-)

Janet and I spent most of the night chatting. She told me about the difficult time she was having with the family for whom she was working as a Nanny. She liked them all very much and was extremely fond of the children, but there were ‘sparks’ between herself and the handsome husband which she was having difficulty keeping under control. As Janet didn’t want to leave the family, she was doing her best to keep out of the way of the husband, but she had the distinct feeling that he wanted things to happen.........

Well Who'd a thought it?????

Almost 44 year have now passed since I first set eyes on the gorgeous vision that  was Eugen.

Who would have thought that all these years on we would still be friends??  So much has happened since those crazy days in The Swinging Sixties - still so much to tell you about - so will try not to give anything away now ;-)

Today is a special day, and soon I must say to him..........    

Happy  70th (gulp) Birthday Eugen!

Leaving Switzerland

Olgi is very sad when I tell her of my dilemma, she says she will miss me very, very much if I decide to go. Rosemary too, says she is sad that I may go home, and says that I must visit her home in Dornbirn, which is just over the border in Austria, before I go.

Got a postcard from Eugen - he is holidaying in Pompeii! The friend he is staying with in Holland is a steward on KLM Dutch airlines - so I expect Eugen got a cheap flight ..... ;-)

Whilst sitting outside the Neugasse café, an American boy came to ask if I was ‘the English girl’ lol! We chatted and he told me about his travels. His father is in the American Airforce and they are stationed in Tripoli - he has invited me to visit him there........ I am beginning to get itchy feet myself and I’m now getting quite excited about Jenny’s idea of travelling around the world. So I have written back and told her that I am all for it. The letters flow fast and furious between us as we make plans, so now I know for sure that I must go back to London to work, save and plan.........

As word gets around that I will soon be leaving, life starts to get quite hectic- saying goodbye was never so much fun lol! I will miss everybody, but I feel quite excited about our travelling plans and going back to London. I have decided that I am going to get a 9-5 job and live independently - no more shift work and being tied to the job.........Jenny has two friends, Pat & Dickie, who have a flat in Crouch End and have a spare room to rent - so that’s the accommodation sorted then!

My last month’s wages will have to pay for my plane ticket, which I have booked at the local travel agents. Freidel, Eugen’s sister wants me to go over to see her in Schaffhausen. She met me at the station and I spent a most pleasant day with her family, we drove over to Stein am Rein, which has the most beautifully decorated buildings. Whilst I was waiting at the station for my train back to St Gallen, Friedel said she’d had a long talk with Eugen about me, but he said he just wasn’t ready to settle down yet - well I knew that, and I feel horribly embarrassed that they are talking about me like this, although I understand how much they would like to keep Eugen at home........

Frau Niederer is very sad that I am going home, she doesn’t speak a word of English, but Friedel says that her mother would like to spend the day with me before I go home. There is an Exhibition just on the outskirts of St Gallen, so wehave decided to go there. Frau Niederer is such a cheerful person that not being able to converse very well doesn’t seem to matter, we have a very jolly day together, she sends off a card to Eugen, but puts it from the both of us.........

Frau Geiger and her friend took me out to sample the Swiss delicacy Cheese Fondue, she says we must drink white wine with the fondue as it helps to prevent indigestion. I have never been a great one for drink and barely managed to drink one glass from the bottle that Frau Geiger ordered - but she had no difficulty in finishing off the rest and more, boy could Frau Geiger and her friend put away the ol’ vino!  And she is so funny when she's feeling a bit tipsey lol!

Well as it turned out, I seemed to spend a lot of time at the Travel Agents changing the date of my flight home. Frau Geiger has gone on holiday and Hans-Uli wants me to stay on until she gets back, then Maria went home to Italy as a relative was ill. She was only expected to be a couple of weeks, but it turned out to be a month, consequently, I had to keep going off to the Rathaus to extend my work permit for a little bit longer and to the Travel Agents to change my flight - I ended up staying another two months!

Eventually, I managed to get a definite booking for my flight home - then right at the last minute - Eugen rang to say why didn’t I go by train and stop off in Holland and then catch the boat from The Hague?   So off to the Travel Agents again to change everything!  Luckily, the young man in there was very helpful and didn't seem to mind all the chopping and changing, he agrees that it will be far more interesting to go overland by train as I will be passing through various Countries.  As it happened, doing it this way was much cheaper than flying home, it also seemed like much more fun and I decided to stop off in Paris too, and meet up with my friend Janet, who has been working there as an Au Pair. She is very excited by my plans and is looking forward to us meeting up again - she says she has lots to tell me............

More of Life at The Importner

By the end of Eugen’s first week away, I'd received a post card from him, it was pretty enough, but I felt extremely miffed when I turned it over and found just a hurried signature - no mention of the weather or how the job hunt was going - just his name! But I felt a little better when Sylvie rang over the weekend to find out if I'd heard anything. It seems that no one else had received a card from him at that point, so at least he’d given me some thought.........

It was a long second week, wondering what he was going to do. I didn’t hear anything more from him until I got a call saying that he’d been back for 3 days and was preparing to leave again. But not for Italy. He had been in touch with an old friend in Holland, and was going to stay with him until he found a job.

Silvie says he’s stupid! But I know how much Eugen wants to travel, and being able to speak German, French and English meant he could work almost anywhere. He would get by in Holland with his English and German and would no doubt be speaking Dutch within a week!

Friedel, Eugen eldest sister, rang to say how sorry she was that Eugen was moving on, it seems that, with both mine and Eugen’s arrival in Switzerland, they had all had high hopes of Eugen settling down....... I’d been afraid that they were thinking that - and more afraid that Eugen would be aware that their thoughts were going in that direction, and that would eventually frighten him away, but I didn’t think it would be just yet. It seems the whole of Eugen’s family had had high hopes of welcoming a third Freda into the family lol!

Instead of spending my days off with Eugen, I would jump on a train and explore all the pretty villages around here. I did feel a little self-conscious when I went into any of the little café’s and gave my order in stumbling German, the Swiss don’t like speaking ‘Hoch Deutch’ and I found it almost impossible to understand the Swiss dialect, but I got by and enjoyed taking photos of all the beautifully painted houses.

Two Irish sisters have come to work in St Gallen, we meet often at the Neugasse for a chat, I can’t say that it makes a nice change to be speaking in English, because I seem to speak in little else lol! Everyone wants to practice their English, so when my German speaking friends are with me, they want to speak in English :-/

Frau Geiger is always asking me to explain the English anomalies. She was puzzled by the word ‘busy’ and askedme to explain it. I did my best, but she made me laugh when she responded with "Oh I see now - right - I go busy!"

I have been kept well informed with what is happening in London, I am in regular correspondence with all my friends. Jenny and I are in almost permanent contact, she says she wants to do something with her life. She has been taking driving lessons and we have hit upon the idea of buying a van and converting it so that we can travel around the world in it. It means that I will have to have some savings, and because I don't earn very much and everything here is so expensive, I am never going to be able to save anything whilst I am working here. Much as I love Switzerland, I have to make a decision as to what I am going to do next - my six month work permit is coming to an end and I have to decide if I am going to pay for another six month permit........

 

 

 

 

Life at The Importner

Back to work tomorrow :-(  - so just doing a quick entry, must get an early night tonight. zzzzzzzzzzz

As Wednesday is my day off, I always expected to go and see Eugen, poor lad - I never stopped to think whether or not it was convenient for him. Sometimes he couldn’t see me during the day as he was too busy in their restaurant, but we nearly always managed to meet in the evening and often went out with his sister Sylvie and her hubby, Erwyn, racing around in their sports car. Scares me to think of it now, drinking and driving was the norm - and how we sped around those mountain passes =:-0

On one of these evenings out, Eugen, Sylvie and Erwyn came into the Importner bar for a drink before hand, it was the first time they had been in the hotel and so the first time that anyone had met Eugen, although they had heard all about him! Eugen was looking particularly handsome in a smart suit that I hadn’t seen before - I wished I could afford to buy a nice little black dress to keep my end up - I felt like the poor relation in my cheap summer dress. Still it was nice to see the surprise on Olgi’s face and watch her fussing round him lol!

We had some really fun evenings out with Sylvie and Erwyn, but a couple of months after Eugen’s return to Switzerland, his feet were beginning to itch again, and one of the usual topics of conversation was where he might go to next. Sylvie tried to persuade him to stay a bit longer as she knew how much their parents needed his help, but I knew that Eugen was afraid of being drawn back into the business and his parents coming to rely on him - he knew he had to move on soon.

I had a terrible night, not at the thought of Eugen leaving, I had the most horrendous toothache - it was like nothing I had experienced before - I had to find a dentist, quick! Frau Geiger recommended one and even rang to make me an appointment, but I still had to wait until I’d done my chores! After the dentist had given my mouth a thorough examination, he said I’d probably got an abscess under one of my fillings. He scraped out what was left of the filling, stuffed the cavity with cotton wool and gave me some anti-biotics. I went every day for various treatments until at the end of the week he decided that the abscess had dried up and he gave me a new filling. He also gave me the bill - which almost made the filling fall out again - in shock! I had been used to free dental care in the UK and never gave a thought to how much it was going to cost - it was more than a weeks wages!! I was almost in tears, I hadn’t earned enough by this time to have any savings. The dentist was very kind and went through the bill item by item and ended up knocking it down by about a third, he also gave me a note to take to the tax office where they would pay so much towards the bill.

It’s now August and we are having rather wet weather, but it’s very warm so I enjoy walking in the rain during my repose. I came back from my walk to find that Eugen had rung, he’d left a message to say that he would be picking me up later along with Sylvie and Erwyn. We had a very jolly evening, Eugen was in good spirits. We went to Trichley’s - yet again. It was the only night club in St Gallen - consequently I had been there a couple of times before - each time with a different feller. It was getting a tad embarrassing, as the drummer in the combo recognised me every time and always gave me a cheeky wink.......

I wasn’t smiling at the end of the evening tho’ - the reason for this sudden evening out, was for Eugen to tell me that he was going off to Italy the next day for a 2 week holiday, and he would be looking for work whilst there, so may not be back!

Updates & Sad News

I am still in contact with many of my friends from the sixties - in particular the ones who worked for Grand Met and lived at Ashley Court.

Bobby, who was a fellow telephonist and still lives in London,  tells me that after many decades (can you believe it!) Ashley Court which has been boarded up, is finally showing signs of occupation.  I would love go around that place again before it is altered beyond recognition - but not sure how to achieve this.   Neil (who I haven't mentioned yet - but another Grand Metite) tells me that he was on TV on Channel 5 facing Tony Blair over the war in Iraq - and gave TB such a tough time that he was invited back on the programme lol! [I love my old mates!  ;-) ]

My friend Bernadette who was the housekeeper at Stratters, has finally retired from hotel work and is thoroughly enjoying her 'freedom'.  We promise on every Christmas card that we really will meet up this year!  We haven't met up for some years now.  Although I did manage to meet up with another old friend the other day - we have been trying to get together for the last 10 years and she only lives about 15 miles away!

Eugen tells me that The Importner has been turned into luxury flats - putting paid to any idea of ever staying there again :-(  Ah well, I've had my chance over the years and have never taken it........

Lastly and most sadly, my dear friend Jenny, of whom I have written often in my reminiscences, because we were such good friends back in the sixties and shared many adventures (still more to come) died on 4th January 2006.  She had been fighting cancer for many years, and was such a strong person that she overcame cancer of the breast, stomach, ovaries and recently had a tumour removed from her colon.  Sadly, it was discovered that the cancer had overtaken her liver.  She went into hospital on December 8th 2005, full of hope that finally she could ditch the colostomy bag and lead a more normal life.  Through out, she continued to work full time - she loved her job and her workmates, so I know she is going to leave a very large whole in their lives.  She was such a fighter - I can't believe she's finally lost the battle.  It's like the end of an era.

A very sad Freda

More of Life at The Importner

We have to muck in and do pretty much everything at The Importner. Today I was called in to help in the kitchen - washing up. There’s a big lunch on and I was actually called down from my repose - bloomin’ cheek! It’s hateful work - there are huge greasy pans to wash in extremely hot water and not a rubber glove in sight! At the end of it my hands were bright red and seemed to be twice their size :-(( I came to dread being called into the kitchen.

But the bright spot of the week was when Eugen called to ask if I would be going to Walzenhausen on my day off - what a silly question lol! Couldn’t have Wednesday off this week as there’s another big lunch on - so more kitchen duties........Had lovely day with Eugen on Thursday tho’, he cooked me his special cheese souffle’omelette, made by whisking the egg whites til fluffy then gently folding in the yolks, cooking the bottom of the omelette in a pan then flashing it under the grill to brown the top - superb! Went for a walk in the afternoon, then met his sister Sylvie and her husband in the evening for dinner, we also met a group of English holiday makers so had a very jolly evening. We came back to The Importner in Sylvie & Hubby’s car, Eugen walked me to the side door of the hotel and, to my surprise, kissed me rather passionately! Hmm - very strange.........

A ‘new’ person has suddenly arrived at The Importner. A young lady is working in the bar and she seems to be very much at home here. It transpired that she used to work here about a year ago but has been off travelling. Her name is Olgi and she speaks enough English for us to converse, I like her, but Frau Geiger is a bit cagey around her. Over a period of time, the full story came out. It seems that when Frau Egglie died and Herr Egglie decided to retire, their son Hans-Uli took over the running of the hotel and Frau Geiger who had been ‘maid of all work’ like me, simply decided to take over and made herself ‘The Frau’. As Hans-Uli had to go away to do his National Service (if I remember rightly, young men up to the age of 40 had to do about 6 weeks National Service every two years) no one objected, in all fairness, she served her purpose, but Olgi was not too happy with this situation and went all out to prove to Hans-Uli what she could do. And so began an evening ritual where Olgi would take me down into the linen room to help her clear it out - she wore a very fetching ‘overall’ that barely covered her bum, and did rather a lot of bending over ;-) when Hans-Uli came down to find out what was going on. It was very hard work, all the equipment had to be moved to clean behind, and it was very heavy. We would be there until 11.0pm some evenings, I was paid extra, but it played hell with my social life!

It soon became obvious that Olgi & Hans-Uli were starting or re-newing a close friendship. We were often called to change the sheets in one of the bedrooms during the afternoon or early evening, when normally we would only be tidying up bathrooms and turning down the sheets. It was obvious someone had been having a jolly time and Maria would keep muttering ‘schiffo’ which apparently meant ‘disgusting’ as we made up the bed with fresh sheets. Frau Geiger was feeling distinctly unsettled and seemed to be trying to get me and Maria on ‘her side’. But there was no way she was going to win this particular battle - Olgi was a very attractive, hardworking and clever gal..........

Furthermore - she was planning on consolidating her position by moving into The Importner. One day she asked me to go over to her flat with her, as she was having a clear out. She gave me some nice things, jewellery, trinket boxes, scarves and a lovely pink lace suit. She would have loaded me down with all kinds of stuff, but I had to travel light, so unfortunately I had to say no to some of it.

We have a party of Americans in, the funny thing is that they assume I’m Swiss, and I was complemented on my English lol! The trouble is, the tour leader wants to make use of her knowledge of German and insists on speaking to me in what she thinks is my own language. I’m having difficulty enough learning German and spoken with a Southern Drawl doesn’t exactly help. We are kept very busy chasing round after them - I have never known anyone use up as many toilet rolls as those Americans - goodness knows what they were doing with it all!!!! The Tour Leader seems to be a little frustrated by not being able to make herself understood, and as it couldn’t possibly be her command of German, she thinks I must be Dutch! Of course I could have told her that I was an English girl who didn’t have a full comprehension of German, but by this time I was having too much fun ;-)

Mum & Dad are coming to Lucern for a holiday and I am going to meet them there and stay for a couple of days. I kept waiting for their phone call to let me know that they’d arrived, but it never came, I rang the hotel where they are supposed to be staying but they don’t know what time they’ll be arriving. I hung around all day then came the phone call in the evening asking me to go straight down there as they were on their way, but I got there before them, the Frau in charge wasn’t very helpful, but one of the waitresses looked after me until the package tour that Mum & Dad were on, finally arrived.

The Hotel Pilatus is beautifully situated on the edge of Lake Lucern - it has a truly glorious view of mountains and heavenly blue lakes. After supper we all went down stairs into the cellar which had been turned into a night club, we had a very lively time and finally staggered off to bed in the early hours of the morning. I joined the group on a trip to the Three Passes - wonderful views, glorious sunny day, even though there was plenty of snow on the mountains!

It was mum’s birthday on 4th July, and everyone on the tour was wishing her a happy birthday which pleased her no end. We went shopping and I bought mum a lovely blue enamelled fob watch. Later we went on the cable railway which was very scary - I’ve never had a head for heights and it wasn’t an experience that I look back on with joy, mind you, everyone else was looking a bit green around the gills as well......We had an early tea and the chef sent in a birthday cake for mum. Afterwards Roger, the Tour Guide, ran me to the station to catch my train back to St Gallen. It was an awful journey back, I had to change trains several times for one reason or another. I finally arrived in St Gallen at 12.30am, and was tucked up in bed by 12.50! But it was awfully hard getting out of bed at 6.30am........I was so tired all morning and so much work to do, the Americans are leaving today and what a mess they left behind them - the rooms looked as if they had all had difficulty finding their belongings - the down side of living life on a whistle-stop tour I expect........