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1969 European Holiday: Day 1
Jul. 3rd, 2019 02:11 pm3 July 1969
When we visited London the first time in 1967, Mom and I stayed at the Regent Palace Hotel– at the time, the largest hostelry in Europe– and we enjoyed it so much that Mom decided to book our stay there again.
Unfortunately, our first night in 1969 was awful. In addition to jet lag, we were in a 1st floor room directly over the sidewalk on busy Sherwood Street off Piccadilly Circus– a section of town that literally never sleeps– so consequently, neither did we. I remember about 330AM, Mom got up to take a sleeping pill (which I later learned was actually a valium), and I asked her if I could have one, too. She reluctantly agreed. I did manage to fall asleep after that, but we were both so groggy the morning after that we didn't get started on our day until after noon.
After lunch, the first order of business was to change rooms. We moved up to 843, far above the hustle and bustle below. When we were finally settled in, I turned on the radio in the room, and heard it announced that Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones had been found dead that morning.
I have to give Mom credit. She did go out of her way to make me happy. In those days, I was a rabid coin collector, and the first thing Mother and I did in London was go to one of the premiere coin dealers in all the world: Spink & Son. On my first trip over in '67, I acquired my very first Roman coin– a silver denarius from the 2nd century AD which Mom bought for me in Bath. Now, I had my sights set on obtaining a fine piece of bronze Roman coinage: a great slug of a coin known as a sestertius, which was equal to 1/4 of a denarius. By 1969, I had also acquired a couple of early English hammered silver pennies (purchased mail order via Spink's), but now, I wanted to add a large silver groat (4 pence) to my collection. So, as I said, our first stop in London on our very first day was to visit Spink's and find my new treasures.
Upon arrival, we were escorted into a private room filled with ancient wooden cabinets made specially for displaying coins. I was a little overawed by the formality of the place, which is to say I was nervous as heck. As usual, I had trouble making up my mind which specific coins I wanted, which made our representative a bit impatient with me, but finally, I chose my groat and sestertius and we were on our way. (The groat cost Mom £10, and the sestertius £15.)
The receipts for my sestertius and groat.
[Before I moved here to Humboldt county in 1983, I sold almost all of my coin collection, but I couldn't bear to part with my sentimental treasures from Spink's.]
My silver 4d of Henry VI, minted in Calais, and Æ sestertius of Emperor Trajan.
On the night of 3 July, Mother and I went to see a show: 'Man of La Mancha', which was playing at the Piccadilly Theatre across the street from our hotel. I can still visualize a couple of scenes from the musical, but what was most memorable was how high up in the balcony our seats were. I'd been in movie theatre balconies before, but these seats at the Piccadilly were in the upper stratosphere in comparison.
I remember keeping this program because I liked the caricatures of Don Quixote's horse and Sancho Panza's donkey. :)
So ended our first day in London.
When we visited London the first time in 1967, Mom and I stayed at the Regent Palace Hotel– at the time, the largest hostelry in Europe– and we enjoyed it so much that Mom decided to book our stay there again.
Unfortunately, our first night in 1969 was awful. In addition to jet lag, we were in a 1st floor room directly over the sidewalk on busy Sherwood Street off Piccadilly Circus– a section of town that literally never sleeps– so consequently, neither did we. I remember about 330AM, Mom got up to take a sleeping pill (which I later learned was actually a valium), and I asked her if I could have one, too. She reluctantly agreed. I did manage to fall asleep after that, but we were both so groggy the morning after that we didn't get started on our day until after noon.
After lunch, the first order of business was to change rooms. We moved up to 843, far above the hustle and bustle below. When we were finally settled in, I turned on the radio in the room, and heard it announced that Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones had been found dead that morning.
I have to give Mom credit. She did go out of her way to make me happy. In those days, I was a rabid coin collector, and the first thing Mother and I did in London was go to one of the premiere coin dealers in all the world: Spink & Son. On my first trip over in '67, I acquired my very first Roman coin– a silver denarius from the 2nd century AD which Mom bought for me in Bath. Now, I had my sights set on obtaining a fine piece of bronze Roman coinage: a great slug of a coin known as a sestertius, which was equal to 1/4 of a denarius. By 1969, I had also acquired a couple of early English hammered silver pennies (purchased mail order via Spink's), but now, I wanted to add a large silver groat (4 pence) to my collection. So, as I said, our first stop in London on our very first day was to visit Spink's and find my new treasures.
Upon arrival, we were escorted into a private room filled with ancient wooden cabinets made specially for displaying coins. I was a little overawed by the formality of the place, which is to say I was nervous as heck. As usual, I had trouble making up my mind which specific coins I wanted, which made our representative a bit impatient with me, but finally, I chose my groat and sestertius and we were on our way. (The groat cost Mom £10, and the sestertius £15.)
The receipts for my sestertius and groat.
[Before I moved here to Humboldt county in 1983, I sold almost all of my coin collection, but I couldn't bear to part with my sentimental treasures from Spink's.]
My silver 4d of Henry VI, minted in Calais, and Æ sestertius of Emperor Trajan.
On the night of 3 July, Mother and I went to see a show: 'Man of La Mancha', which was playing at the Piccadilly Theatre across the street from our hotel. I can still visualize a couple of scenes from the musical, but what was most memorable was how high up in the balcony our seats were. I'd been in movie theatre balconies before, but these seats at the Piccadilly were in the upper stratosphere in comparison.
I remember keeping this program because I liked the caricatures of Don Quixote's horse and Sancho Panza's donkey. :)
So ended our first day in London.
