So Fa La Land

7 - The Tawse

It was Saturday at Greenacres Hotel. This was changeover day in the sixties when people were still booking a week or fortnight's holiday, all in the same establishment.

It made catering so easy as you could plan out the entire menu for a fortnight so that those staying two weeks didn't encounter the same meal twice, although there was often fish and chips on Friday nights as that always went down well with everyone especially with Minnie's homemade batter.

On Saturday mornings George spent the entire time finalising the bills for the departing guests, knocking off their deposits which had been paid when making their bookings, and adding on any extras such as morning coffee with Minnie's biscuits or afternoon tea with her scones and cakes – all home made.

The scullery maid, Elsie, always spent the entire Saturday morning scrubbing the floor and doorstep in the entrance to the hotel and the strategy was extremely effective for obtaining tips. She made it quite clear to guests that they were disturbing her work by walking through the entrance. A brilliant strategy as hands went in pockets and coins went in Elsie's apron.

Penny and Ada got first dibs on the loose change upstairs as they were always there before the guests began checking out, Hoovering the landing and stairs' carpets and dusting the frames of pictures and the banisters, so that the guests had no excuse to not notice them.

As soon as they had checked out, Penny and Ada were straight into the guests' rooms to discover how much money had been left for them on the dressing tables.

George had always been a fair employer and paid top rates to the staff and he and Minnie did feel a little aggrieved that the staff walked off with huge tips. Perhaps they should add a service charge next year which could be split equally between all of the staff, because he was head waiter, did all the breakfast serving and Minnie did all the cooking. It was a dilemma. The new selective employment tax came straight out of the profits, too.

The staff were certainly extremely mercenary and both George and Minnie got annoyed that no real work was actually done on Saturday mornings other than the making up of the guest rooms. The entrance lobby certainly didn't require several hours cleaning.

Today hotels in the United Kingdom rarely have people staying a whole week or fortnight. It is a dying tradition except in the bigger seaside resorts.

At least there were no lunches to prepare on Saturdays so Minnie got a day off to bake cakes and make batches of biscuits.

All of these skills had been acquired during her years of service and that had been the purpose of Mary Murray's Institution in Preston Pans.

She was sitting at the table preparing cooking apples for a tart for Sunday's guests. She held an apple in her hand and that, combined with her thought about her childhood transferred her back over forty years, it was all as clear as if it had happened yesterday – the hateful matron, the hunger and the fallen apples in the garden ...

- o O o -

At Mary Murray's Institution Miss Hodges hated and was vindictive towards the Robertson sisters and none of them ever knew why as their mum, even while ill, made Miss Hodges gifts of cakes and tablet. The girls were certain their mum had no idea how they were being treated and how poorly they were being fed.

The nastiness was quite extraordinary. Minnie's mind went back to one autumn when she and a few of the others could see fallen apples under the trees in the Institution's garden.

They knew they were not allowed to pick the fruit or even pick up the fallen apples. Miss Hodges would rather they rotted than be eaten by the girls.