The Importance of Sartorial Splendour.

I have often laughed about our days as Hoteliers. An absolute necessity for the part, is the Good Sense Of Humour.

Not only for handling customers, but also for the day to day running of such establishments.

Another necessity for an Inner City Hotel, was the wearing of suitably impressive raiment. Suit & Tie being the norm for the males of the species, & nice high heels, & good quality suits or dresses for the females of the species. Stockings, of course, were essential, back in the day. With an exception being made for light summer sandals when it became hot, when the showing of bare legs was considered acceptable.

GOM used to take great pride in his appearance, & had tailor made suits. Usually with two pairs of trousers. And we would choose his shirts & ties together, as his sense of colour wasn't always 'spot on'.

He would rotate the wearing of his suits, & carefully have them drycleaned. He really strove to be immaculate- even if he was turfing out an unruly customer, or perhaps scrubbing a loo, after an 'incident'. He always prided himself in telling his staff he would never ask them to do something he wasnt prepared to do himself, & he lived up to that.

Once, on a busy Show Weekend, when Farmers from outlying areas had come to town to display their produce, and animals, the Hotel was crowded with hot & thirsty men & women, tired after their long day at the Show.

Trouble eventuated, & threats were made, shouting ensued, & GOM found it necessary to eject the chief troublemaker. Who didnt take kindly to the idea he was to be ejected & fought & struggled against the ejection. The result was GOM's suit jacket was ripped asunder, & as he came out of the Hotel to come upstairs to change, our children were looking down into the car park, & were somewhat upset to see their father in such a dishevelled state. His hair was all ruffled up,& his suit coat was flapping in peices from his shoulders.

Very upsetting at the time, but of course, hilarious to recall now!
The recalcitrant drinker, whose father had some standing in the community, apologised, & paid for a replacement suit... & later became a friend, when we moved to our Country Hotel, which just happened to be his 'local'.

Another suit which was a particular favourite of GOM's, but only had one pair of trousers, actually wore out in the *ahem* 'ballroom'! One morning he discovered to his horror the fabric had worn tissue thin, in said area. Of course it was the cause for much mirth on my part, & you can imagine how I teased him about it.

He became very annoyed, & was determined to get the trousers mended. So he took them off to the tailor, who assured him they would be mended very satisfactorily.

He duly went off to collect them on the promised day, & didnt examine the mend, until he got home again. He was bellowing with rage, while I hopped about howling with laughter! The fabric in the suit was a muted darkish grey with blue flecks. The 'ballroom' patch appeared to be a loud blue & black plaid!! And it was a synthetic fabric, not the lovely fine woollen blend of the suit!

An Aunt had come to stay with us, & she couldnt believe her eyes, & we sniggered & laughed about it for days. GOM stuffed the hapless trou into the back of the wardrobe, & it was never to be mentioned again. Of course he can laugh about it now, & we suppose the tailor sought to have another suit made, rather than the other one mended.

What reminded me of that story, was the fact that GOM, who is no longer the snappy dresser he once was- seeing as we are now retired & live the life of retirees in our "Resort location Paradise" we tend to the casual style, -has just discovered that the 'ballroom' area of one of his casual pairs of pants has worn out!!

My Aunt will die laughing to think he still suffers from the same thing, as she once told him, "You shouldn't have such large ones". It is not really the problem, but of course it sounds funny.
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And here, on a completely different note, is a pic of my Beloved Grandmother, taken at her youngest son's wedding. Everyone called her 'Danny', which was my nickname for her, & it stuck.

I dont seem to have one of our Grandfather with her, I have one of him, with my brother & I. My Grandmother always loved that round brooch she is wearing in the pic, & no one seems to know what happened to it, or where it went.

She died at Easter time, on a Good Friday, so I always think about her at this time of year.