Happy days at the Beach Cafe

The place was really jumping. Dozens of teenagers were dancing frenetically to the beat of the latest hits.

Others were scattered around the various cubicles or standing around the jukebox waiting to make their next selection.

Coloured subdued lighting, combined with music and the drift of cigarette smoke, set the atmosphere.

Parked outside was an interesting collection of motor cars including a Vauxhall, a Vanguard, a 1927 Chevie open tourer (owned by Neil Mottlee), an FJ Holden sporting on its bonnet a chrome swan with pink fluoro wings and, my favourite, a brilliant red MG TF with whitewall tyres.

You could be forgiven for thinking that you had wandered onto the set of a Happy Days movie and that at any time The Fonz would appear and greet Richie and all the good looking girls with his characteristic "Aye" with both thumbs up.

Alas, this was not Arnolds but the Beach Cafe which, in the 50s, was located on the corner of The Esplanade and Trafalgar Ave, Umina.

Within weeks of our arrival in Umina in 1951, my parents entered into a contract to purchase the Beach Cafe from Rene Hawkins who conducted an estate agency and milk bar on the premises.

We scraped all the advertisements from the windows and carried out substantial renovations in time for the holiday season.

Shortly afterwards, we received the shattering news from Gosford Shire Council (as it then was) that the shop was in the way of the Ocean Beach Improvement Scheme and we were told to vacate the premises to allow the work to proceed.

There was no offer of compensation.

What followed then was six years of persecution and bitter vilification, including numerous meetings with council, local politicians and even the consul general.

We received a lot of assistance from a local solicitor and a prominent Sydney barrister but eventually my parents gave up and purchased a coffee lounge in Rose Bay, leaving yours truly to run the milk bar and biscuit factory.

In no time at all, we acquired a jukebox and hamburger grill, and the milk bar soon became a gathering place for local teenagers, as well as catering to the beach crowd.

Sunday nights proved really popular with regular rock and roll dances, and local musicians playing brackets between records.

Even Frank Ifield used to pop in occasionally after appearing in a local concert.

Every so often, we were visited by out of town motor cycle clubs including the White Knights from Manly and the Moon Men from Hornsby.

Unlike some of their notorious counterparts today, club members were all well behaved and courteous, with most of the boys from Manly riding immaculate Triumph 500s which they used to park in single file along the beach.

One fellow from the Hornsby club was known to all and sundry as Sexy Cyril.

He was huge and would have made a great Sumo wrestler.

He rode a big Harley with sidecar, which didn't stop him from doing the occasional doughnut upon his arrival.

Once in the shop, the timber floorboards creaked under his impressive weight and even the termites underneath would run for cover.

In spite of his fearsome appearance, he was a lovely bloke with a great sense of humour, although the girls may have found him slightly less than irresistible.

The first jukebox only played twelve 78's and we soon upgraded to a new model which could play vinyl 45's (on both sides).

Local artists like Johnny O'Keefe, Col Joye, Lucky Starr, the Delltones and Little Pattie were well represented.

The occasional romantic ballad was also appreciated by those teenagers in the throes of first love, with Dream by the Everly Brothers and Love me Tender by Elvis being the most played.

In addition to the jukebox, we also had a record player which came into use late in the evening when most of the crowd had gone home.

Friends of mine had introduced me earlier to the glories of jazz and soon we were listening to the likes of Dave Brubeck, Errol Gardner, Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald.

We also discovered the excitement of the big bands.

Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Lionel Hampton and the incomparable Louis Armstrong were the records most requested, with the Carnegie Hall Concert by Benny Goodman, Golden Wedding by Artie Shaw, and anything by the George Shearing Quintet running a close second.

The golden and carefree years of the Beach Cafe came to an end in the late 50s when the shop was finally demolished, only to be replaced years later by a carpark.

Letter, 25 Sep 2009 Fred Landman, Daleys Point