HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A GROWN MAN CRY?

It is inevitable that anybody who works in a setting like Clevelands House develops unique friendships with many Guests over the years. There have been some families that have stayed with us for 50 years or more and the subsequent generations have brought their families. It is really flattering to have grandparents bring the next generations to the resort summer after summer.

Mom and Dad bought the resort in 1969 and Dad was very eager to start renovating and making changes to the rooms soon after they took over the ownership. In the early 1970’s one of the biggest renovations completed one winter was the renovating of all of the bathrooms in the North Lodge. That building has 38 rooms so this was not a small project and when the resort opened for the season Dad was pretty excited to have some of the long-time guests who had been staying in those rooms arrive and see the amazing upgrades that had been made.

The office had recently been moved from the Main Hotel Lobby to where the Gift Shop is now. Looking at that space now, it is hard to believe that building was big enough to handle all of the traffic but it served it’s purpose just fine. Back then check in day was Saturday and everybody stayed at least a week. We certainly couldn’t accommodate the number of people we can now but the hotel probably accommodated well over 200 people at that time. As I am sure you can imagine the office building on Saturdays was total chaos all day long.

One of Dad’s favourite guests back then was a woman by the name of Mrs. Corey. She had been staying at the hotel for years and quickly became one of the guests Dad looked forward to seeing every season. She was one of those people who checked in, had a great time, was a joy to have around and spread the word about how great the place was when she got home. Dad always went out of his way to speak to her every chance he got when she was at the hotel. He was really looking forward to having her arrive the season after he did all of the renovations in the North Lodge because he knew she would be so excited and pleased to see her new bathroom. She checked in mid-July and Dad made a point of getting her organized at the front desk himself and gave her the keys to the room she had been staying in for years and was looking forward to seeing her later to get her feedback about the upgrades.

About 10 minutes after she checked in she was back in the very crowded office lobby and caught Dad’s eye and indicated that she wanted to speak to him. He knew she was just coming up to say how much she loved all of the renovations and he actually wanted her to tell him that in front of everybody in the lobby because he was so proud of the changes, as a result he didn’t pull her into his office. As Dad was standing across the counter from her with a smile from ear to ear she said in a great loud voice. ‘I JUST CHECKED INTO MY ROOM, AND THERE ARE PUBIC HAIRS ON MY NEW BATHROOM FLOOR!!!!’....

Shoot me now.