“We’re not going to Boston, any more! I’m not spending half my holidays, sitting on the bank side, all day, doing nothing. It’s boring!” To which Charlie retaliated-
“Well we’re not going to Blackpool, any more, either!”
So then we embarked on a series of fortnight holidays with Dorothy, Alex and Tanya, all conveyed in the trusty COA159. We had holidays in Llandudno, Torquay, Bridlington, and finally Great Yarmouth. On the middle weekend in Yarmouth, Julia, George and the girls arrived, to spend the second week with us, all on the spur of the moment. While there, Julia saw a vacant property for sale. It was a terrace property, a guesthouse, bang central, and just one block behind the promenade. Much dilapidated, vacant for some time, it had last been occupied by an old lady, reduced to living in few rooms, allowing feral cats to colonise the remainder. It required a considerable amount of work, but offered considerable possibilities. Julia had a quick think, waltzed into a building society, secured a mortgage, and set the purchase in motion.
On her return to Sheffield, she put her existing property on the market, then visited her bank manager to fill him in. He said ‘You’ll have to forget it, Mrs. Frazer; you’ll never get a mortgage’. He caught up with her, eventually. It’s a pity Robert Maxwell never met my Auntie Julia. He wouldn’t be where he is now. He might only be running a seaside boarding house, but he’d be running it at a profit, and sleeping like a Christian- no offence.
So with the Frazers in the holiday business, holidays were never the same again. For a start, they were free, in a manner of speaking. Julia would never take a penny, but there are other ways to justify one’s presence, like laying carpet, waiting on tables, food preparation and washing up- you wouldn’t believe the number of slices Dorothy could get out of one tomato.
And, of course, there was Bingo! The connection? Well, Julia would say, as we were going out, after breakfast, magic words, such as crockery, or table lamps, or jam and butter dishes, or bedding, or cruet sets, and we would go and spend the best part of the day winning them at Bingo. I wasn’t any use in the kitchen, but I could plonk bottle tops on a numbered board with the best of them. This was when the new craze of Bingo had only just arrived, and the arcade owners hadn’t progressed to the sophisticated boards with the sliding shutters. They had to improvise with used beer bottle tops. Health and Safety in Public Places, and Hygiene were still in the realms of science fiction.
George would take seasonal jobs, in the summer. One job was in the ‘Majestic’ penny arcade, giving change from a satchel, as he walked around the machines.
I must admit I found this a considerable inconvenience, because the Majestic had the only machine left on which you could win a cigarette for a penny, and I had cracked that machine but good! Of course, whenever George came on duty, I had to suspend operations.
Another year, he got a job on the South Denes Caravan site, running the hire shop. This entailed hiring out not just the silly four wheeled, three seater cycles with the big advertising panel on them (imagine paying good money for the privilege of cycling the length of Yarmouth sea front, to advertise the show at the Wellington Theatre) but also to hire out radios, electric kettles, food mixers, hair driers, anything not provided in the caravans. That left plenty of scope, and the demand was sky high. George came home and stripped the house of any electrical appliance not in use, to take to work and hire out on his own account.
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| Charlie, Jane & Dorothy on the Hire Cycle |
Julia wasn’t a good cook, but she always served good food, and her trump card was that she always gave folk just a little bit more than they could comfortably eat. She served an evening dinner, and on Saturday evening, arrivals day, she would go through to the dining room, after dinner, to say hello. Actually, she soon got to swanning in every evening, like a prima donna taking curtain calls, but it made sense, and the customers liked it. So, on that first evening, if any woman quietly asked not to be served any potatoes, Julia would smile sweetly, and quietly ask-
“Are you on a diet, love?” The answer was usually ‘Yes’, so Julia would go on, with a smile just as sweet, but not so quiet, just enough so any one awake could hear-
“Well you’ve left your diet at home and you’ve come on holiday to enjoy yourself, so you’ll enjoy eating your potatoes, won’t you?” In the early 50s, when we were only just shot of the ration coupons, everyone thought this was wonderful. The people were weary of going short, of being short-changed by all and sundry, and here was a woman who was determined to give you your money’s worth, even if you had other ideas. There’s no wonder she hardly ever needed to spend money on advertising. Every customer went home a walking, talking free advert!