My Father's Pubs - 2

My father was a lunchtime drinker. Perhaps this went back to his days as a ships' agent on the coast of Eastern Africa, where he would start work very early in the morning and then take time away from his desk through the heat of the day. Lunchtime was also when he entertained the captains of the ships that came in to his agency, taking them to the club before bringing them home for lunch.

So I have many happy memories of time spent with him in this pub, the successor to the Three Oaks Hotel after my parents moved into Hastings Old Town. It's the Cinque Ports Arms in All Saints Street, Hastings, a small, single-bar pub with panelled walls and a perfect pub atmosphere. In it....

....my father (right) would meet his friends, particularly Gordon Faulkner (second from right). Being such good, regular customers meant that they were well looked after by the landlord (left) and his wife. What was special about the pub was that it didn't bother with the inessentials, like food; if existed for its beer and its atmosphere.

My father spent the fading years of his life in Maldon, Essex, where his lunchtime beer was taken at the Blue Boar hotel. Although he walked the half-a-mile from his house to the pub, by this time his hand was shaky so the bar maid, a lovely Spanish lady called Inez, would pour him a three-quarters pint of Adnam's bitter and then top it up.

We also lived in the town so I was able to spend some lunchtimes with him. By this stage his memory was going so I would hear the same stories day after day. This repetition didn't bother me: I was just so pleased that he had these experiences to enjoy. However, he wasn't happy with his life - my mother worried that they should have stayed in Hastings rather than move to be nearer us.

It was in this pub, sitting by the window, that he turned to me one day and said, "Life owes me nothing." I think I understand what he meant.