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Show L LIE ERI TEA DALE ugu t16,2001 Hampton so I could see the Isle of Wight where I did my army training. And I went into a real e tate agent. I said, "Have you got a little bungalow, or something?' I said I don t mind what it's like. I can do it up. But we want to get out of London. We want to come down to the coast. I'll get a hob driving or something. So, he said, "How would you like a guest house?" I said, "What are you talking about, a guest-a bed and breakfast?" I said, "No, we couldn't do that." He said, "It's not a big one. It's only just come on the books." He said, "I'll take you around there because I think you are the sort of people that could run it." And he said, "These people have been running it for a while, and they want to get out of it now." We went around to see this house. It was a big three story place-seven bedrooms, fully furnished. All the cutlery, everything. And they were asking a ridiculous price of 12,000 pounds. That in those days-this was 1972-and we thought about it, and we made an offer of 11,500, or something. We sold our own bungalow with a week. We got 10,000 for it, so we didn't need a loan. And we took over this guesthouse. We ran it for seven years. We had a lot of fun. We met a lot of American people, and a lot of people from Germany (speaking German). And they wouldn't talk to me then. But it was, you know. We've had a very good life. We've worked together. We ran a business. We put out the state agents signs. I ran that for five years on my own. Well, I had some help. I had to engage some guys. I had to start with six people. I ran that for five years. Margaret had a nervous breakdown. She was answering the phone all the time. So, that's when we moved to Witten. We got out of London to get away from all that. She spent three weeks in 43 |
