Part 4 International Differences
Summer at the Bel Air was always hectic but we found different groups of people brought different situations. May and September brought mainly seniors, who wanted a quiet holiday and at a lesser cost than high season.
Seniors staying in the motel were wonderful. They would usually come for three or four nights and did not want any room service except for clean dish towels and a new garbage bag. When they left, the rooms were usually very tidy, quite often the bed was stripped and there would be very little to do except a basic cleaning. Most seniors like the laid back atmosphere of the motel and enjoyed sitting outside for their morning coffee, and would chat to us, while we went about our daily routine.
Late June and July brought families with several children, the pool would be filled from morning till evening, except for our afternoon senior’s hour. Parents enjoyed the enforced dry time as they got their little ones to eat lunch and maybe nap while we oldies enjoyed our special hour. The coin laundry would be in full swing as sleeping bags and pool towels were laundered by camping families.
July always brought a regular group of Chinese/Canadians from Vancouver. They were a group of sisters and their families who really enjoyed camping together. There would be twenty or more of them and a very organized bunch they were. They always arrived in a group of minivans and, within an hour of arriving, would have a terrific arrangement of kitchen, dining area and tenting set up.
The three sisters opted for the same group of camping sites every year and were perfect guests. Children were well behaved, sites were kept clean and tidy and when they did an activity, every single one of them participated. There holiday was very organized with every moment planned out. One morning would be horseback riding and every one of them would leave at the same time, five or six minivans leaving the park together, quite often resulting in the squealing of brakes of other people coming down the road.
The group always had a few elderly members but everyone went on every outing, whether it was floating down the Penticton river channel or cherry picking. I don’t know if everyone participated in the activities, but everyone went along. On the day they went home, the camp was taken down and packed up, in double quick time and all the mini vans would take off together, leaving the place spotless.
In August, we used to get the big Italian families arrive, lovely people and very friendly. The women would bring enormous cooking pots and utensils, and cook non-stop, the men had their own priorities and would bring gallon jugs of red wine. The guys would do their best to get Dave to join them each afternoon, to see if they could get him drunk
The problem with most of our Italian guests was they would book a room for a family of five but would bring ten or twelve people with them. Extended family and neighbours with a few extra children would all arrive and expect to be accommodated.
A seven room motel is soon filled and July and August was very busy, so trying to find beds for extra people was a problem not easily solved. The first year I stressed about this and ran myself ragged, making up impromptu beds and even putting cots in the laundry room, but then I just learned to go with the flow. \If they wanted to have people sleeping all over the floor, so be it. They brought sleeping bags and seemed to be quite happy. Luckily, we never had a visit from the fire marshal or we would have probably been shut down.
The main reason the Italians came was to pick tomatoes and peppers. They brought small utility trailers and filled them to overflowing. The whole family would leave early in the morning and work till early afternoon. On return the women would get together and cook an enormous feast, while the men sat and drank home made wine. Picnic tables would be dragged from the grass and spread all down the motel car park, then everyone, including us, would sit down to a big Italian feast. Although there were usually many children in their party, they very rarely went in the pool. The kids seemed happy enough to just do things as a family. They were noisy and boisterous and lots of fun but never got out of hand, always a pleasure to have as guests.
German and Dutch visitors liked to rent motor homes. Germans seemed to like to travel with just two people in each motorhome, Dutch people seemed happy to share. They all loved the pool and wore the tiniest European swim suits. The Canadians usually wore swimming shirts that came down to their knees but most European guys wore a tiny Speedo type of swimwear that left very little to the imagination! They thought nothing of doing a striptease, under a pool towel, at the side of the pool. Quite entertaining to watch!
I an sorry to say that we had more trouble with Canadian families than any other ethnic group. Most people were wonderful but we had quite a few that had no respect for others. We were very strict about our pool rules. A pool is a marvellous place to spend a hot day but a big cement area, slippery from wet feet, can be a dangerous place.
There was a sign, in the pool area, saying that children under fourteen had have a parent in attendance. This was constantly disregarded and there would be kids trying to kill one another, and themselves, by leaping around on one anothers’ heads. I would tell the kids to get out and bring mom or dad to watch them. We had so many parents telling us that their child was an excellent swimmer, some had a life guard certificate, and didn’t need a parent. We tried to explain that little Johnny maybe an excellent swimmer but, when kids get together in pools, they do not swim laps, they want to run, jump and dive on each other.
Many parents would point out that there were adults already in the pool, so the kids were under supervision. They found it hard to believe that the adults in the pool would not enjoy watching other people’s children doing belly flops and soaking everyone in sight.
Most people were very good and easy to get on with. We had one big family that came every year. They had six children and a big tent. Their children were quiet and respectful. After several years, they started to bring another family with them, also really nice people. One year, they all arrived and set up tents then the two guys drove off in one truck . Apparently, one of the women had packed half of the suitcase and left it on the bed, for the husband to add his clothes to it. He obviously didn’t listen to her instructions and packed a small suitcase for himself, put it in the truck and left his wife’s clothes on the bed…..in Langley. The two men had driven from Langley to Oliver then, drove back to Langley and then returned, to Oliver, all on the same day. Life in a tent is very casual so why the wife did not just go down to the local Fields store and pick up a few outfits, I do not know.
My husband doesn’t listen to instructions either but I have the sense to check up on his actions, not just assume that he has done as I have asked.
We tried to get a daily walk, before our busy day started and took our dog to the river for 45 minutes, every day. We went early and were always back for 7.30am, to open the laundry and office for 8.00. One day we arrived back from our walk and I could hear a motor running. On investigation, I found a small boy sitting in the hot tub. He had somehow climbed over the locked pool gate, removed the hard cover and rolled back the soft cover, of the tub. This was a big commercial hot tub with really strong jets and I felt physically ill at the thought that the child could have been pulled underwater and not discovered for another couple of hours, when we opened the pool.
The child refused to get out of the tub, probably because he could see the smoke coming out of my ears, so I marched up to the family camping site and told his mom what was going on. The woman was enjoying her coffee and had sent the child to play on the swings, located next to the pool, she seemed very unconcerned that the child had climbed over the fence and was in danger. I demanded she get the child immediately and she was so upset by my attitude that the family packed up and left, giving me a rude gesture as she drove out of the car park.
Luckily, most of our guests were great and we were sad to see them leave, however, as summer turned into fall we began to feel the need for some time off. Smiling non stop, from morning until bedtime was a strain. Dave and I may have a disagreement, or even a blazing fight but we had to instantly put on a smile when a guest walked into the office. They had probably heard my tirade from across the car park but, hey, you have to try and look the part of the gracious host, even when you have been yelling.
September brought the seniors out again, less money in the bank but much less cleaning, laundry and stress. Things slowed down, we had time for ourselves and began to think about winter, when the Prairie people would roll in. Another sort of family for the winter months……..to be continued.