Never Go Back - ?

[simongt]

Last week, I met a long time pal; of over fifty years, in Felixstowe at the hotel where we'd first encountered each other fifty one years earlier.
In 1973, it was the only four star hotel in East Anglia and rightly had very high standards. All the managers wore morning suits and our duties were very carefully monitored for quality.
Despite having spent three years on a management course at catering college, when I got my job there in '73, the General Manager said 'I don't believe in college boys' and I spent several months in as a waiter in the restaurant under the 'rule' of a very strict manager - !
On our return last week, the hotel had lost a star and it was obvious why. Uncut lawns, rotting window frames and general air of slight shabbiness.
In fairness, Felixstowe itself, as with many of the Victorian seaside towns is run down and a bit shabby and the hotel itself was very quiet at lunchtime when we were there.
Back in 1973, the place would have been buzzing; staff scurrying about, bars and dining rooms busy and an air of good trade all about.
We both felt sad, but on reflection, we felt privileged to have been part of a first rate training which set us up for our lives ahead and instilled very high standards which had become 'hard wired' and to which we stuck to our entire working lives.

 

[stephec]

I thought this was going to be one of those things about not going to school reunions as a lot of the people have turned into complete knob heads, but it sounds more like the opening paragraph of a chapter from Notes From a Small Island.

 

[Jenkins]

Orwell Hotel by any chance?
There's been coverage in the local rag of the staff not being paid since it was sold on recently.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

I visited a hotel in Thailand a number of years ago and thought it was amazing. Fast forward a few years I’d been to Asia a few more times and, one time, went back to the hotel again. After seeing others it now looked a little rough around the edges and a bit of a let down.

I have great memories of an absolutely fabulous hotel at Batu Ferringhi in Malaysia and won’t be making the same mistake of going back for a second time.

 

[oldwheels]

I went back a few years ago to look at my grandparent’s croft house where I spent most of my school summer holidays.
It had been bought by a retired Squadron Leader and was unrecognisable with a huge extension. The barn, stables and byre were tumbledown and the barn roof had caved in. The fields were full, of dockens and had no crops or animals.
I was told locally they were not popular and as I stood there with my bike a car approached and a woman got out to open the gate. I was only feet away from them but they behaved as if I was not there.
Left my with a very sour taste and the feeling I should never have gone back for a look as it spoiled many happy memories

 

[simongt]

Orwell Hotel by any chance?

Yup. Not unlike the Grand in Scarborough and no doubt many other once great hotels, now merely shadows of their former glories.

 

[Beebo]

I went back to my old university haunts after 25 years with some old friends.
It wasn’t the same and it made me sad, but things change. But it would be like me being at uni in 1994 and expecting it to be the same as in 1969. Which is preposterous.

 

[DCLane]

In 2016 we went to visit Pietermarizburg in South Africa as part of a much larger 3-4 week visit across SA / eSwatini. SWMBO had lived there between the ages of 2 and 13. She was really disappointed that the house she had lived in was very run-down and the area had got a lot worse.

Where I grew up has gentrified since I left (M&S arrived) and my parents left (high street pedestrianised, house prices quintupled). Clearly us leaving made a difference.

 

[Mike Ayling]

In 2016 we went to visit Pietermarizburg in South Africa as part of a much larger 3-4 week visit across SA / eSwatini. SWMBO had lived there between the ages of 2 and 13. She was really disappointed that the house she had lived in was very run-down and the area had got a lot worse.

Where I grew up has gentrified since I left (M&S arrived) and my parents left (high street pedestrianised, house prices quintupled). Clearly us leaving made a difference.

I lived there from 1959 to 1968.
It has a Zulu name now relating to the Msindusi River.

 

[gbb]

Told this one before I think but in the 80s or 90s, ventured back to our childhood airbase home in Notts to have a look round, it's always nice (for me anyway) to remember good times.
My mistake was remembering poor little Chris Chambers , at the time 8 years old who fell in the Trent and drowned. I drove to the local cemetery to see if I could find his grave, I just felt compelled to remember him.

I did find it...and within hours, I was overwhelmed with a mini depression that lasted a couple days. It really surprised me how down I felt, he was my (at that time) best mates young brother, we didn't 'play' together.

I can still hear his mother's scream when she was told what had happened, makes me bad just recalling if.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I thought this was going to be one of those things about not going to school reunions as a lot of the people have turned into complete knob heads, but it sounds more like the opening paragraph of a chapter from Notes From a Small Island.

I have just come back from a school reunion

worked pretty well - which was a surprise.
Not seen most of those people for about 50 years but everyone got on fairly well even though many of us came from different areas once we had left school

rather weird and I am very glad to be back to my normal life!

 

[presta]

Left my with a very sour taste and the feeling I should never have gone back for a look as it spoiled many happy memories

I've mentioned before about avoiding trying to re-live the past because it spoils memories, but that said, I've just bought a slide scanner and I'm busy digitising all my father's old slides.

Where I grew up has gentrified since I left

The house where I lived in Woodhouse, Leeds has sprouted iron bars at the door, a sad sign of the times. Not all changes are for the worse though, when we moved out, my parents lost the first sale when the buyer backed out because a black family had moved in next door. My cousin moved out of Bramley after she was burgled 9 times in 10 years.

My mistake was remembering poor little Chris Chambers , at the time 8 years old who fell in the Trent and drowned. I drove to the local cemetery to see if I could find his grave, I just felt compelled to remember him.

I did find it...and within hours, I was overwhelmed with a mini depression that lasted a couple days.

I've just been scanning a photo of me and a school classmate, he died of cancer shortly after we left school.

 

[oldwheels]

I've mentioned before about avoiding trying to re-live the past because it spoils memories, but that said, I've just bought a slide scanner and I'm busy digitising all my father's old slides.

The house where I lived in Woodhouse, Leeds has sprouted iron bars at the door, a sad sign of the times. Not all changes are for the worse though, when we moved out, my parents lost the first sale when the buyer backed out because a black family had moved in next door. My cousin moved out of Bramley after she was burgled 9 times in 10 years.

I've just been scanning a photo of me and a school classmate, he died of cancer shortly after we left school.

I must admit I do have a lot of good memories of times past. A bit like yourself tho’ they also cause me a bit of depression sometimes and particularly ones involving my wife who has been dead now for just over nine years. I should be able to move on but the problem is I have nowhere and nothing to move on to.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

At my sister's funeral, a lot of old women came up to say they'd been at school with me.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

I was based in Portsmouth in 1984. Went back with my wife a couple of years ago and couldn't believe how shabby, small and decrepit it was.