1970s PRIVATE LIFE
9173 - Entertaining - Parties
Our style of entertaining has varied over the years. When we were first married we use to give dinner parties for two to four friends. I greatly enjoyed this, especially as it allowed me to try out new recipes and new wines. On the other hand, Pat preferred parties which were attended by forty or 50 people, often acquaintances rather than friends; and ones which were punctuated by party games. I suppose this came from her upbringing, where her extended family joined in such parties and Pat was the centre of attention. My own family also had such parties on my father’s side, but not my mother's side -- to which we were closer -- where we enjoyed much smaller affairs.
Once the children were old enough, their needs took over. The children's parties we gave were a riot, and were reputedly some of the best in the neighbourhood. But even the parties for our adult friends moved in the direction of Pat's ideal; and were relatively large parties with finger food. There were exceptions. When fondues became all the rage, in the 1970s, something like ten or twelve of us used to sit around the table and take part in these rituals. Once we moved to Milton Keynes, however, there seemed to the very few parties -- and all these were of Pat's type. In addition, they seem to be given by us alone - and by nobody else.
On the other hand, I have done a significant amount of business entertaining; at a very different level. This has ranged from lunches at the best restaurants - I once gave a lunch in a private room at the Savoy where there was a waiter for every journalist - to the other end of the scale where I threw a party for the IBM staff working on Exhibit, to which 400 were invited. It was the party to end all parties. As all the workers were much younger than me, I asked Sarah where we should hold it. She suggested the London Dungeon. This had never been used for parties and it meant we had to build three stages for the music; one for the singer who was the British entry in the Eurovision song contest, one for a jazz band, and one for a disco. In addition we had to import a complete kitchen. This cost something like £30,000, but it was a great success. Equally, though, it ended with me having to throw all the drunks out - literally into the gutter -- and receiving a formal reprimand for providing a bottle of wine a head instead of the standard half a bottle.
The biggest parties I gave, though, were the American picnic -- celebrating the US bi-centenary -- and the Jubilee party the following year. Something like 5,000 to 6,000 people turned up to those, though they did have to provide the own food. The residents association, provided the entertainment; in the form of gymnastics, massed bands, and police dogs. They were a great success, and led on to become an annual event; as the Molesey Carnival.
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