Читать книгу Class of '79 - Chris Rooke - Страница 10

Going on from there we went down to Torquay and camped outside the town, and although we spent most of our days on the beach, there was still no sign of any Bikini Babes - Damnation!

Camping in Torquay

The most noteworthy thing about our stay there was that one evening we hit the bars in downtown Torquay, and we chanced upon a really great bar with loud music, loads of young people and a great atmosphere. Brilliant! (Just the sort of place that I would now avoid like the plague, but as teenagers, it was heaven!) By that time it was getting a bit late but we all bought pints, somehow squeezed onto a table and began to soak up the great music and atmosphere.

However, no sooner had we all sat down, but the music suddenly stopped, massive spotlights in the ceiling were suddenly switched on, flooding the place with a blinding white light, and a door at the back of the pub suddenly opened through which several massive bouncers entered in an aggressive manner – carrying baseball bats! They all started to shout ‘Time’ and ‘everybody out’ and one bouncer even came up and smashed his baseball bat down on our table, telling us to get out – now!

One forgets all too quickly in this day and age, that we used to have strict licensing laws and pubs called time at 11.00 pm at weekends (10.30 pm on a school night) after which no more drinks could be served, with a 10 minute ‘drinking-up’ time allowed after this – and Sunday licensing laws were a complete nightmare! This particular bar in Torquay had clearly never heard of ‘drinking-up time’ or the idea that they were entertaining guests in their establishment who were to be treated with courtesy and respect.

Before we knew it, we were out on the street, near full pints left behind in the pub, at the suggestion of the bouncers, and the doors of the bar were closed and locked behind us, and we all stood there, rather bemused, not knowing quite what had just happened, or what to do next. I suppose you have to hand it to the bar, they cleared the place in under two minutes, with no drunken arguments from the drinkers and no having to wait for ‘drinking-up time’ to elapse – but it was rather harsh!