The Beginning of the Win

LONDON, PART 1 1986

****A little update is in order here. I’m posting this in 2010. Back in the 80’s, radio was in its glory. The music was good, the economy was good, and the world was a pleasant place. In Miami, there were about 8 major radio stations, from Classic Rock to Country, Lite Jazz to the beginnings of Hip-Hop. They were all frantic for ratings. It was the golden age of radio give-aways and contests. It seemed that at least once a week some station would be giving away car keys to as many people as their dial numbers called for- i.e. 101.5 would give away 101 keys. 94.9 would give 94 keys, ect. The population of the South Florida area, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, the Upper Keys, and South Palm Beach, listening area was about 2.4 million people. Of this number, there were about 20 people that regularly won about 40% of the radio prizes. They were just lucky, and they knew how to dial a phone to the best advantage to win. Remember, this was before cell phones and computerized dialing system. This was punch in the number on a land line phone and hope. Crystal, my wife, was among the 20. It would take pages to list the trips, car keys (never did win a car), concert tickets and various other things, large and small that she won on the radio. This is the tale from the beginning.********



By the beginning of the summer of 1986, in her first year of serious radio game playing, Crystal is making it look easy. One reason for this is that a lot more stations are giving away a lot more prizes and bigger prizes too. So it came to pass, our light jazz station, (I hate that term. Real jazz is not considered light), was running a contest, where you sent in a list of your 4 favorite songs, and if you heard them being played back to back in the order you sent them in, you won the prize for the day. Well, as she was leaving Publix one afternoon, she heard the first song. On the way home, a 5 minute ride, they played the second one. As she walked in the door the third one started, then the fourth one played. She called in, and won the prize for the day. Every Thursday the big prize was given, and since she won on a Thursday, she won 2 tickets to any where that Eastern Airlines (they were still around in 1986) flew in the continental United States, with an option of London, England. They also so gave you $1000 for expenses, like a hotel. Since I had just started with BTI, we planned the trip for August, figuring I would be leaving for Jamaica in September or October. I started researching London and came up with what I thought would be a hotel that was located within easy access to all of the sights. As it turned out I couldn’t have made a better choice than the St Ermin’s, in Victoria. So we called Laurie at Kings Bay Travel, the agent Crystal used at work, and she booked everything for us. We got passports and were ready to go. We had Laurie book some tours and arrange for the train tickets and the Underground passes. The Underground pass was good for all zones on the subway system, and all buses above ground. It was valid for 7 days, just right for our stay. I checked the weather in London predicted for our visit, and figured a couple of cheap plastic raincoats from Eckards would be a good investment, and it was. We both took off Monday the 18th of August to make final preparations for our first really big adventure.

The flights to London all leave in the late afternoon, no matter the airline, since it’s an overnight flight, which gives you a full day in London, no matter how tired you are. It’s an 8 to 10 hour flight, depending on the jet stream. Usually you arrive in London from 9 to 11 in the morning. As we were to find out, no matter where you stayed, your room was never ready. The check-in in Miami went smooth, the passports were ok, and the luggage went quickly behind the counter. We boarded an Eastern L-1011, a rather large airplane, compared to what we had been on before. We had a window, (me), and an aisle (Crystal). Ten hours later, with not much sleep for me, we landed at Gatwick Airport. This airport is about 50 miles south of London. We were supposed to be met by someone who would assist us in getting to the train. They may have been there, but we missed connections. I went and exchanged some dollars for some pounds, and scouted out the train. We already have the train tickets, so all I have to do is find the correct train. I found the platform for the Gatwick Express, and went back and got Crystal and the luggage. The platform was in the airport, so it wasn’t much of a hike. The train will take us to Victoria Station, which is close to the hotel. All aboard and away we go. A boy with a refreshment cart passes up the aisle, so we get a coffee. We are whizzing through the English countryside, through little towns and villages, with no stops since this is the Gatwick Express. We begin to slow down a little as we approach the suburbs of London, then into London proper. We pass through a tunnel under the Thames River, and shortly thereafter, we are at Victoria Station. The first thing we have to do is find a London Transit Authority office, and convert our voucher into a subway and bus pass. This only takes a minute, and we are told the best way to get to our hotel with our luggage is to take a taxi. They point us in the right direction, and soon we are in a queue (a line) awaiting our turn for a taxi. In Europe you queue up for a lot of things. When the taxi pulls up, no matter where you are at, protocol says you lean in and tell the taxi driver where you want to go, and upon his approval you load the luggage in the cab and away you go again. When we pull up to the St Ermins, a man in a uniform and a top hat opens the door and says, “Welcome to the St Ermins”. A bellman come and takes our bags. The guy in the top hat is a greeter and will get you a taxi when you need one. We are escorted to the front desk, where we are informed our room is not ready, but we can go ahead and take care of the paper work, and they will let us know when we can go up. The lobby of the St Ermins is beautiful, with a large chandelier and a curving staircase to the second floor. We locate a couple of easy chairs in the lobby, and have a spot of tea and some sandwiches. In a little bit, we are informed the room is ready, so up we go. We have a nice view of the front courtyard and the guy in the top hat, doing his thing. The first thing I notice is that there are no screens on the windows. I assumed the cooler weather kept the bug population to a minimum. We were over tired, so we refreshed a little, then went out to explore the area a little. I had a map of the town, not as good as the one I would buy later, but good enough to avoid getting lost.

Two blocks away was a main drag, Victoria Street. So we walked back towards Victoria Station, since I figured that would be our main tube (subway) station. Later I would find that the St James station was right next door to the hotel, in the opposite direction of the way we had walked. It was a very nice walk, with the temperature around 60 and cloudy. We discovered a lot of interesting stores that we would investigate later. We bought some fresh baked rolls at a bakery and a couple of different kinds of cheese at a cheese shop. Close to the hotel was a little market that had a shelf of scotch in the rear, so I picked up a bottle of ‘Old Grouse’ scotch. Back at the room, we order a bucket of ice. In the States, this is no big deal, but here, they made in into a real production. It costs $2.50, and could arrive in anything from a champagne bucket to a bowl, what ever was handy, I guess. But it served its purpose with the ‘Grouse’.

In our travels around the neighborhood, we had passed the ‘Albert’ pub, (which was to become one of the top 3 pubs on my all time ever list). In 1986, the pub laws were very weird- they could open from 11am until 2pm, then had to close until 4pm and were open until 11pm. Now-a-days, they are pretty much like our bars as far as operating hours are concerned. In fact, in 2004, they were trying to pass a law to let the pubs stay open 22 hours a day, since, it seems when all of the pubs closed at the same time, all of the drunks were dumped out on the streets at the same time, and this was causing trouble and fights around town. I don’t know the outcome of that one. Anyhow, the Albert was open so we decided to try it for dinner. A wise decision. The down stairs of the Albert is a prime example of a Victorian pub, with etched glass on the windows, and over stuffed chairs and couches everywhere. Upstairs, there is a Carvery, a British term for a buffet that has a big roast beef, a large ham, and a roast turkey, and sometimes a roasted pork leg. With this are all of the sides and fixings, plus a dessert cart rolls by when you are done with the other stuff. One price covers it all. What a great way to have dinner. Plus they had Guinness.

After dinner, we took a walk. From my map, I had figured out that if we went in the opposite direction from Victoria Station, down Victoria Street, we might have a treat in store. It was just getting dark. After about a 6 block walk we turned a corner and there they were- closest to us was Westminster Abby, and just behind her was Big Ben. There were lights illuminating them and it was a magnificent sight. As we walked on, we discovered the Abby was closed, but now we knew it was within walking distance. We walked on towards Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We walked half way across the Westminster Bridge, when the clock turned 7pm. Big Ben did his thing and a very impressive thing it was. First was the Westminster chime thing, then 7 big gongs. It was a very nice way to end the first day in London. On the way back to the hotel, we found that the offices of the New Scotland Yard were just around the corner from the hotel. Now we felt very safe, and slept great that night, with the windows open.

Thursday morning found us up early and rested. We had coffee and some of the rolls we had bought yesterday, in the room. Then we walked back to Victoria Station. As part of the package Crystal had won, we boarded a double-decker bus for a grand tour of the city. We climbed to the second level and got good seats. For 3 hours we were shown all of the sights, viewing them all, stopping for none. I tried to keep up with where we were, so I could later co-ordinate the places with my map, and figure out the best way to get back to the places we wanted to visit. The bus dropped us off back at Victoria station, where I co-ordinated us around the corned to a pub that we had seen from the bus. The ‘Bag of Nails’ turned out to be one of our regular stops on future visits. We had a nice lunch of ‘pub grub’, and planned our next move.

We walked back to the Victoria Station tube stop and boarded the Circle Line for the trip to the Baker Street station, where we hoped to visit Madam Tussaud’s wax museum. We found the queue to be too long, so we went to plan ‘B’.

A few words about transportation in London. In my opinion, London has the best transportation system in the world. First is the Underground. (Tube, subway). There are 2 lines that circle, (The Circle Line, which circle an area that encloses most of the major attractions), and 9 other lines that crisscross the city and go out into the suburbs. Then there are the red buses that go every where. With a transport pass, between the tube and the busses, there are no places you can’t get to, and the pass is good on both. If you need to get from point A to point B directly and quickly, you can hop into a black taxi. There is no need to rent a car for travel in London. There are very few places to park. Most of the people who work in London use the public transportation to get about. I quickly figured how to navigate the tube lines and stations and how to hop on a bus when needed. Sometimes a bus ride above, although slower, might let you see places the subway can’t.

Anyhow, we checked our ‘to-do list’, and decided this would be a good time to explore the area around Piccadilly Circus, Circus being a Roman word for circle, of which there was one, a traffic circle, in Piccadilly. We walked around the area and found ourselves at Trafalgar Square. Here we located the National Gallery. We spent several hours with the great painters of the world, with the special of the month being Leonardo de Vinci. What a great Museum. We stopped in a nearby pub for a Guinness and a look at the map.

We strolled down the Pall Mall towards Buckingham Palace. On our left is St James Park, a legacy of Henry The 8th, who had it built for a hunting preserve. It is across from the Palace of St James, the Royal home before they acquired Buckingham Palace. There was not much happening at the palace this late in the day, so we found a new way back to the St. Ermins. We order up some ice, partly to see what it would arrive in, and also to go with the ‘Grouse’. We had a bit of Glouschester cheese and crackers, while we got ready got dinner.

During our travels, we had seen a place near Scotland Yard that looked interesting. The ‘Villa Claudius’ was entered through what looked like a large phone booth. An elevator took you down to a very large restaurant that was entirely underground. There are a lot of things underground in London besides the tube, I guess. Our waiter, Manuel, provided excellent service, which along with the excellent food and wine, made for a most enjoyable evening. The place was 5 stars in my book. We call it a night and head back to the room. Crystal discovers they play radio games in London on FM 95.8, while I watched a cricket match on the telly. There are 4 TV channels, which all leave the air at midnight. They show mostly Ed Sullivan type variety shows and old movies. I find the best things are the commercials. Time to sleep.

Up for more coffee and croissants this Friday morning. So far the weather has been fantastic. This morning we walk around the corner to the St James tube station and catch the Circle Line to the Tower Hill station. The stations have maps that show the route of the line you will be using. Some stations have more than one line intersecting at the station, so there will be signs telling you which level to go to. The London Underground has some of the longest escalators I’ve ever been on. There are some that seem to disappear in the distance when you look to see the end of it. Once you pass through the machine up stairs that scans your pass, I guess you could stay underground forever. I know we saw some apparently ‘homeless’ types that appear to have ridden the subway all night. It was rush hour and the train cars were packed, but we managed to get to the Tower Hill station without much fuss. When you walk from the Tower Hill station to the Tower of London, the first thing you pass is the spot where most of the prisoners that were in the Tower for crimes against the Crown were brought for execution. I think that only 6 or 8 were actually executed inside the Tower walls. The next thing you pass is part of an ancient Roman wall that circled the small city of Londinium around 60 AD. We purposely arrived about 30 minutes early, so we would be close to the head of the queue. It worked, so we are about 4th in line. By the time the gates open the line is out of sight to our rear. If you don’t get there early and make the Crown Jewels your first stop, you’ll be in that line all day. We purchased our tickets and were told to just follow the signs and they would take right to the building that housed the Jewels. Again we were close to the front of the queue to see the jewels, and soon we went down into the vault where they were located. The guards inform everyone that they are allowed only one trip around the circular aisle that circled the jewels at eye level, but you could take as much time viewing from the second level as you liked. So we cruise the jewels slowly on the fist level, then go up to the second level to view our favorites as long as we wanted. There is no way to describe the Crown Jewels. It looked like piles and piles of very good costume jewelry that some one designed to be as big and bright as he could imagine, except that these were real.

The Tower of London is a collection of many buildings, all grouped around the ‘White Tower’, which was the original tower built by William the Conqueror around the late 1000’s. We visited them all, including the block where the head of Ann Bolynn left the body of Ann Bolynn. We saw the cell Sir Walter Raleigh spent some time in, and the stair case where the bodies of 2 little boys were discovered, supposedly killed in a power struggle by Richard 3rd. We talked with a Beefeater guard about the history of the place, and saw the ravens, of which legend has the Tower crumbling if the ravens ever fly away. The raven’s wings are kept clipped, just in case.

We plan to spend the afternoon at the British Museum, so we walk back to the Tower Hill station and hop back on the Circle line to Kings Cross tube station, where we transfer to the Piccadilly Line (Blue) and travel to the Russell Square station where it is a short walk through Bloomsbury to the British Museum. Before entering the museum , we have lunch at a Wimpy’s, a burger joint like Wendys. We spend the rest of the afternoon roaming from room to room, floor to floor visiting the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone , Egyptian Mummies, the Sutton Hoo find, and so many other things, there is no way to describe the things that are there. It a ‘must see’ place requiring several days to explore. From here we tube over to ‘Harrod’s’



We take a taxi back to the hotel to rest a little before dinner, since another walk is involved. London is a ‘walking’ town if you want it to be. And we enjoyed walking about. You never knew what would be around the next corner.

In our travels in the Leicester Square area, we passed a Chinese restaurant claiming to be the largest Chinese place in Europe. So we walked down the Pall Mall, through Trafalgar Square to the ‘Man Fu Wong’ restaurant. It truly was huge. The food and service were both excellent, plus it was reasonably priced. We had the fried seaweed, which was a first for us, and it was great. As we paid the bill and were leaving, they gave us each a card good for a 10% discount for the next ten years. Little did we know that we would use it several times in the future.