Moving to A Winter Wonderland?!?
Leaving the Hide Away Lodge was difficult. We had grown to love Wolf and Lilli and saying good bye was very hard. However, it was time to move on.....but first we had to take that inexpensive vacation to Florida. We hooked up "Escargot" to the new car and we were off. It was October of 1971 and Disney World had just opened. We just had to stop there. It cost $7.25 to get in to the Magic Kingdom and we can remember the people in front of us complaining about the price. Sheessssh, hope they don't try to go there now! It was a great little vacation. We drove all the way to Key West and then headed back to New England to start our new job.
On our way to Vermont, we stopped in Connecticut and bought an Old English Sheep Dog puppy. We had our choice of 27 puppies. We chose the runt of the litter, he just begged us to adopt him. What a joy he was!!! As he was our Christmas present to each other, we named him Kris Kringle!!
We headed north to start our new position at the Sonnenhof Inn in Jay Vermont. We had been hired as a team to run their dining room. Peter of course would be doing the cooking and I would have my very first Dining room to run. How exciting it was.
They gave us a beautiful 3 bedroom Chalet to live in. The view from our living room window was of Jay Peak Mountain. They also gave us season ski passes so we could ski any time we weren't working. It all seemed so wonderful.
Everything went really well with the running of the restaurant. I hired 3 older Vermont women to work as waitresses. They all had experience slinging hash, not necessarily working in a somewhat formal dining room. But they always showed up and could carry more dinners on a tray than any waiter I've ever worked with. They were from strong Vermont stock!
The only glitch with the job was the family that owned and ran the lodge. Hospitality and customer service were not part of their vocabulary! Their two young children were totally without manners and terribly overweight! The parents also lacked manners, were uncaring for their guests and had no respect for life. The wife was always sporting a black eye that she would blame on the door knob of their bedroom. They let one of their horses die of starvation, and nearly starved their two husky dogs to death that winter. However, they were the first people in the dining room for every meal and demanded they be fed first!! We made it until the end of the season, despite them making our lives so difficult. The guests of the Inn would come to us, to complain about how they were being treated, and the lack of concern by the operators. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do to remedy their issues. We had originally thought about staying on after the season was over, however there became no choice but to pack up and leave!!! We weren't sure where we would go or what we would do, but we couldn't stay there any longer!!!
Leaving the Hide Away Lodge was difficult. We had grown to love Wolf and Lilli and saying good bye was very hard. However, it was time to move on.....but first we had to take that inexpensive vacation to Florida. We hooked up "Escargot" to the new car and we were off. It was October of 1971 and Disney World had just opened. We just had to stop there. It cost $7.25 to get in to the Magic Kingdom and we can remember the people in front of us complaining about the price. Sheessssh, hope they don't try to go there now! It was a great little vacation. We drove all the way to Key West and then headed back to New England to start our new job.
On our way to Vermont, we stopped in Connecticut and bought an Old English Sheep Dog puppy. We had our choice of 27 puppies. We chose the runt of the litter, he just begged us to adopt him. What a joy he was!!! As he was our Christmas present to each other, we named him Kris Kringle!!
They gave us a beautiful 3 bedroom Chalet to live in. The view from our living room window was of Jay Peak Mountain. They also gave us season ski passes so we could ski any time we weren't working. It all seemed so wonderful. 
Everything went really well with the running of the restaurant. I hired 3 older Vermont women to work as waitresses. They all had experience slinging hash, not necessarily working in a somewhat formal dining room. But they always showed up and could carry more dinners on a tray than any waiter I've ever worked with. They were from strong Vermont stock!
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