Barmaid, 91, plans to keep on serving
Source: AFP |
June 1, 2013, Saturday
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SYDNEY'S oldest barmaid Lil Miles has never been a drinker, but after four decades in the job at her family's Bells Hotel in Woolloomooloo the 91-year-old still hasn't tired of pulling beers.
"I'll keep going," said the diminutive great-grandmother, even though the Sydney pub scene has changed vastly from the wild days of the 1970s when big spending sailors and dockside workers kept the hotel busy.
These days Woolloomooloo is famed for its expensive harborside restaurants and cafes. Without the wharf workers, and with fewer tourists coming in for a drink, electronic poker machines bring in some of the revenue once generated by a crowded front bar.
It's a far cry from the 1970s when many of the cottages in the working-class inner city suburb were empty and derelict, while its proximity to the wharfs, the Garden Island Naval Base and the nightclub zone of Kings Cross meant it was a tough neighborhood.
Was it wild? "Oh yes it was," said Ireland-born Miles, reflecting on her career.
In those days, some hotels in the area allowed prostitutes to be "raffled" to the highest bidder on their premises. "It wouldn't happen today," she added.
"They used to raffle the girls - I won't tell you which hotel - and you'd get a girl for the night. And then, the next publican, he raffled the boys. And they got a bigger crowd, much, much bigger. So there you are. Not here."
The Hotel would see its own action, said Miles, with sailors competing in races with burning rolls of newspaper stuffed down their backsides.
"One night there was three sailors leaving... one was lit, he'd been around the block, and he'd light the next one," she said. "It was so funny."
"I'll keep going," said the diminutive great-grandmother, even though the Sydney pub scene has changed vastly from the wild days of the 1970s when big spending sailors and dockside workers kept the hotel busy.
These days Woolloomooloo is famed for its expensive harborside restaurants and cafes. Without the wharf workers, and with fewer tourists coming in for a drink, electronic poker machines bring in some of the revenue once generated by a crowded front bar.
It's a far cry from the 1970s when many of the cottages in the working-class inner city suburb were empty and derelict, while its proximity to the wharfs, the Garden Island Naval Base and the nightclub zone of Kings Cross meant it was a tough neighborhood.
Was it wild? "Oh yes it was," said Ireland-born Miles, reflecting on her career.
In those days, some hotels in the area allowed prostitutes to be "raffled" to the highest bidder on their premises. "It wouldn't happen today," she added.
"They used to raffle the girls - I won't tell you which hotel - and you'd get a girl for the night. And then, the next publican, he raffled the boys. And they got a bigger crowd, much, much bigger. So there you are. Not here."
The Hotel would see its own action, said Miles, with sailors competing in races with burning rolls of newspaper stuffed down their backsides.
"One night there was three sailors leaving... one was lit, he'd been around the block, and he'd light the next one," she said. "It was so funny."
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