Unplugged Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Leisure inn, what a great site and name for a new J D Wetherspoon pub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unplugged Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Leisure inn, what a great site and name for a new J D Wetherspoon pub they could even keep a few of the old arcade games in the place for all you Nostalgic Gamers out there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Stevens Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Apparently the Leisure Inn is due to close next month. I'm amazed it's lasted this long! Shame, but arcade games have been dying for a while and I imagine online gaming has killed slot machines too. I worked at "The Leisure" off and on as a seasonal worker from 1990 to 1993....Although my main place was a leased sister site called "Funland" now River Island (If it is also still there!)....I was seconded to "The Leisure" as and when needed.... The overall owner was Arnold Petter who spent most of the year in Thailand in business.... The managers in Douglas were Ron and Karen Hargreaves.....I imagine they are retiring....Is Arnold dead?.....Petter also owned the Greensills site and then that was sold and flats built there. Arnold Petter's father once owned several amusement sites..... The new building that replaced the old Leisure was built with other purposes in mind if necessary and it does have extensive frontage, a large floor area, lots of power points and in addition to the downstairs loos there is a workshop out the back and upstairs general and private office facilities with ablutions if I recall correctly... There is also a counting house on the ground floor for totting up the lolly! Room out the back for two cars to park I think and overall a building suitable for conversion/alternative usage.... All in all working there was a very tedious experience of long hours, plenty of aggro after the first year when public behaviour declined but it had its perks about which I shall remain silent! One thing I can say is that I met many members of the Douglas low life contingent....We used to say it would be better to put our machines in Markwell House and save our customers a walk over the road! Some of you may recall dear old (irascible) Jack Karran who after losing the use of his legs eventually in later life became the cashier at "Funland"? There is still I think the Jack Karran Trophy for snooker? Jack told whoppers about his age and joined the Paras in World War Two and as a sniper was captured at Arnhem but he told me he made sure he got rid of any sniper identification. (“I had me a few!”) Jack Karran was 17 when he dropped at Arnhem and as he said, on the Island in those days no one bothered to check up they just took you as a volunteer. One day a local "cowboy" muttered "Prick" to Jack as he was counting change and before he knew it Jack then a pensioner had grabbed the lad, pulled him through the front of the cash desk, told him his fortune and hurled him back such that he fell on the floor. Not a nice job, Always on edge and wary but an "experience".....It was as you might say, "reel crazy"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkydevil Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I worked at "The Leisure" off and on as a seasonal worker from 1990 to 1993.... Now there's a surprise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 Anyone remember the machines downstairs at Colin Leather's music shop in Castletown ( Castle Sounds?? ). Spent all my dinner money on Phoenix there in the early 80s. Never went there. The only Phoenix machine I remember was in Uncle Toms Cabin, the chippy by Park Road. They had an Astro Blaster too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nom de plume Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Great site for a coffee shop. Douglas needs a coffee shop. More coffee shops. Coffee shops are the future. I want coffee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Leisure inn, what a great site and name for a new J D Wetherspoon pub Leisure inn, what a great site and name for a new J D Wetherspoon pub Yes - ideal. Would also bring the town to life a bit in the evenings. And maybe force a certain brewery to up it's game in its' own pubs.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I worked at "The Leisure" off and on as a seasonal worker from 1990 to 1993.... Now there's a surprise. I've not seen 'Explorer' on Barrie's Walter Mitty list yet. Perhaps he might f*** off down to Antartica for a few years? The Internet Free bit of Antartica bit I mean. Or perhaps try and explore the earth's core where the reception is pretty bad. Barrie Steven's explorer - go for it Barrie... ...I bet he comes back with: 'Actually I was an explorer of sorts..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebees Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Frankies was the name of the one that used to be over the road from the Leisure. Karen and Ron are a nice couple. I wasted all my wages in that stupid arcade when I was 16/17 but it was an important lesson in addiction - I would not stick 2p in a 'shove penny' now, my gran was a massive gambler, I'm taking no chances. Anyway, all the best to them as they retire and I think I own at least one of the Smash and Grab bandits The place where Chapters used to be looks like it has some of the games from the Crescent in, Gauntlet & Track and Field were my favourites, I quite liked the one where you had to deliver newspapers, what was that called? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isle Of Man LIVE Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 "Paperboy", funnily enough, . I, too, wasted many mispent years in the Leisure / Frankies / Funland / Crescent axis of forbidden lights. Got a book full of tales of from those places. I suppose the best thing of it all was it was all a bit "them and us" with us trying to relieve the places of money illegally and them trying to stop us. Not that I remotely approve of that behaviour nowadays, kids ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt W E Johns Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Shame, I spent my teenage life there on the table football, etc & in the cafe c.1972 onwards, for me.... Maybe you remember Jackie Corran, obsessed with Alvin Stardust, we used to say ''do Alvin, Jackie! do Alvin!'' and he'd launch into an hilarious impression. He was a champ on the table football too. Yeah, many happy memories. None of the electronic stuff then. Maybe space invaders. Plenty of good pinball too. The management used to increase the ''Tilt'' mechanisms' sensitivity when it started to clock up too many replays! Bastards! Let's see... Moffy, Reecer, Ducker, Docker, Dunners, Sanny, Paddy, Rosser, Mouler, et al, ad nauseum, etc. Saturday nights, 15yrs old, 5''Park Drive' (untipped), bottle of ''Sweet Mountain'' wine and a quarter-bottle of 'Red Cap' vodka between two of yer and back to the 'Leisure' getting 5 plays on the Jukie for a shilling, pissed pin-ball and still have enough change from a fiver for chips, peas and gravy from the Chinese next door! The ''Pearl of Hong Kong'', if iremember correctly. Regularly, me'n Paddy used get a bag of ''shitties'' and ''doggies'', fishing off the Vic pier, take it to the Pearl and get free food/Chinese ciggies from the boss in return. Got some photographs somewhere, must dig them out. Shame, I spent my teenage life there on the table football, etc & in the cafe c.1972 onwards, for me.... Maybe you remember Jackie Corran, obsessed with Alvin Stardust, we used to say ''do Alvin, Jackie! do Alvin!'' and he'd launch into an hilarious impression. He was a champ on the table football too. Yeah, many happy memories. None of the electronic stuff then. Maybe space invaders. Plenty of good pinball too. The management used to increase the ''Tilt'' mechanisms' sensitivity when it started to clock up too many replays! Bastards! Let's see... Moffy, Reecer, Ducker, Docker, Dunners, Sanny, Paddy, Rosser, Mouler, et al, ad nauseum, etc. Saturday nights, 15yrs old, 5''Park Drive' (untipped), bottle of ''Sweet Mountain'' wine and a quarter-bottle of 'Red Cap' vodka between two of yer and back to the 'Leisure' getting 5 plays on the Jukie for a shilling, pissed pin-ball and still have enough change from a fiver for chips, peas and gravy from the Chinese next door! The ''Pearl of Hong Kong'', if iremember correctly. Regularly, me'n Paddy used get a bag of ''shitties'' and ''doggies'', fishing off the Vic pier, take it to the Pearl and get free food/Chinese ciggies from the boss in return. Got some photographs somewhere, must dig them out. There's a Manx Nostalgia group on Facebook for pics if you find them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 Frankies was the name of the one that used to be over the road from the Leisure. Frankies! Yes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Stevens Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I worked at "The Leisure" off and on as a seasonal worker from 1990 to 1993.... Now there's a surprise. I've not seen 'Explorer' on Barrie's Walter Mitty list yet. Perhaps he might f*** off down to Antartica for a few years? The Internet Free bit of Antartica bit I mean. Or perhaps try and explore the earth's core where the reception is pretty bad. Barrie Steven's explorer - go for it Barrie... ...I bet he comes back with: 'Actually I was an explorer of sorts..." Well actually!........... Funny you should say that! Now I suggest you read the following aloud but slowly in a low droning monotone... The nearest I have been to Antarctica is Puerto Madryn the Welsh speaking part of Patagonia, Argentina..... I had been the broker covering the River Plate grain trades on the old Baltic Exchange for the French agri-business group Louis-Dreyfus between 1974-77. This was before the start of the big shipping slump and which is still with us... Later living in Houston, Texas for the second time just before the Falklands War I took the opportunity to spend some time in Rio de Janeiro. From there I was ordered down to Buenos Aires where I went to some of the places mentioned in the show "Evita" including the mausoleums of Eva and Juan Peron and decided also to explore some of the places I had known only from charter parties ie Bahia Blanca, San Lorenzo, Santa Fe and Rosario and then the trip down to Patagonia. Louis Dreyfus by the way operated an intelligence cell called "Surveillance" in the provincial town of Chivilcoy not far from Junin the home of Eva Peron (nee Duarte) and which features in her biography. I found no hostility to the British at all anywhere in Argentina....then they invaded the Falklands... What else can I tell you that is boring and absolutely nothing to do with the "Leisure"? You started it! Oh yes!...In Houston I was in business for a while with one of the Apollo mission astronauts Stuart Roosa commander of Apollo 14 and who died in in 1994 being buried in Arlington National Cemetery....I also knew Frank (Dick) Scobee who was killed in the shuttle "Challenger".... Old Walt's doin' well today ain't he! The first tranche of my memoirs of shipping days before the great crash and the demise of the old Baltic Exchange has been filed with the archives of the National Maritime Museum being largely personal letters "Ken Stevens 1924-1996 Noted Shipbroker of the Baltic Exchange City of London 1955-1980s Life. Times. History. Narrative letters and photographs." ....Barrie Stevens.....Kept in the Caird Library 347.73BALTIC-051. If you have read thus you should be able to cut down on your Mogadon intake and thus save the NHS a fortune... Never challenge a retired traveller busy writing his memoirs...... I shook hands with Richard Corkill once but I would rather have had the money.... Hoping that this has all been boringly irrelevant......Love Barrie. PS XXXXX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gladys Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 At Quilp - never frequented the place mesself, but I remember your list of names, the sweet white mountain wine and Park Drive. You have also reminded me of the Alvin Stardust lookalike - he used to perform at the Hawaian as I recall. Funnily enough, I met a chap on Douglas Head walking the dogs a little while ago who introduced himself as Jackie Corrin (doing a bit of do you remember x?). It was the same guy, I am sure. Red hair? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 You have also reminded me of the Alvin Stardust lookalike - he used to perform at the Hawaian as I recall. Funnily enough, I met a chap on Douglas Head walking the dogs a little while ago who introduced himself as Jackie Corrin (doing a bit of do you remember x?). It was the same guy, I am sure. Red hair? "Pooh!...Pooh!...poop a scoop...." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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