Catering Exhibitions

I will tell you about one or two of the Catering Exhibitions I went to. They were set up to get you to use their services during the season.
The best venue I ever went to was the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa. There is so much nostalgia regarding the Dam Busters and all that surrounded 619 Squadren. I do believe that the Officers Mess was at the Petwood. It was, when I went to a frozen food company that held it's exhibition there. Just about large enough for them.
The best for another thing was held at the Festival Pavillion in Skegness. There was another held in Skegness. It was called Caterex. I think it is still going. It was a large concern and covered the Embassy and Festival Pavillion with a bus shuttle available. The trouble was that there was little security so that lots of strangers went to Caterex so it was crowded.
Now to the best one. I will start by saying my Restaurant was unlicenced. There was a licenced restaurant about 6 business away. Well the salesman called to see me, I told him I was unlicenced but he could have a cup of tea with us if he wished. He did so then asked if we sold soft drinks. I said yes, so he said he could supply with us with soft drinks at a good price. Anyway I agreed and during the season we got on well together. At the end of the year, he told me that he would send me 2 tickets to go to his exhibition, to be honest I had been told about this and also told it was the best one going.
I didn't think about it and closed for the winter, I had a young man who helped me who was at college and would see me regular during the winter. Early Rebruary I duly received tickets to admit me and a friend to the Festival Pavillion. I just left them lying around, when the lad, who was approaching 18 came to see me, noticed these tickets, asked me if I was going, I told him probably not. I could see he was disappointed, so I said O. K. we will go.
At the outer door was a couple of men asking if we had tickets, I told them I had, they then opened the outer door. This led to another door just before entering the hall. I was then asked to produce the tickets. They were inspected and one of the men told me that they had to be careful as nobody who did not have a licenced premesis was allowed in. He then allowed us in with a curt, enjoy yourselves. The first thing we saw when we went in was a stand and this man asked us if we would like to taste some real ale. We both refused, I did not drink much and Freddie. I will call him liked lager. This was around 1981. There were about 60 stands. As you can imagine. most of them were beer stands, there was also about 4 whisky stands 2 rum stands, and I think a couple of wine stands. The wine was not given so freely but the whisky stands were well supported and there was plenty of spirits offered to taste, generous portions too. I was really interested in a dry Bain Marie, I had a wet one, well I found a stand and made arrangements for the rep to visit me, as soon as I had left, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the rep from Hobart. I had known him for about 5 years, having bought a microwave, mixer and steamer from them. He asked me how I had managed to get into the building as it is strictly for licenced premesis only. I just griined. He then produced his Diary and pointed to the note in red. It stated the time and date of the exhibit and underneath was "A great free piss up". He then told me that all the reps looked forward to this one as it was the best of all.
Anyway Freddie enjoyed his time there he was well cut by the time we left.
The first time after the show the rep asked me if I had been to the show. I told him I had, he then told me something that surprised me. He told me that no orders much were taken at the show as most went there for a good piss up and what happened was that when he called on them, they felt obliged to stay with them for the coming season. I told him I had made arrangements for a salesman to call on me. He grinned and told me nothing would come of it. He was correct.
He enjoyed calling on us and in early May I think it was, he told me that Skegness had been chosen to play the game "It's a Knockout" only this year it was going continental and the Skegness was going to go to France. I can't remember exactly where. He then told me that he was on the team, but only as a reserve. I think the team was 6 plus 2 reserves. He then told me that the BBC had told them that they would have to wear the same clothes. I think the BBC supplied the blazer which they had to pay for, they had to wear grey flannels. I can't remember though if they had to pay for their own transport and hotel costs. The disappointment for him was that he never appeared on T V as he was only a reserve. I think he was disillusioned especially having to pay for the blazer. He did wear it once to show us. I think it had BBC It's a Knockout on the top pocket. Hope I have not bored anybody More soon.