A childhood memoir of life before polio, and immediately after, and my magical childhood adventures in and out of a wheelchair
The Bura Business Empire
The Bura Business Empire stretched all the way to Broadstairs where my granddad ran a cockle and whelk emporium for one season. My parents then moved him to the West side of Herne Bay pier in-between Mr Ironside's arcade and the Fletcher brothers' arcade, which included the famous Dodge 'em Cars! Granddad sold cockles, whelks, mussels, crab, lobster and jellied eels. My parents ran The Oyster Bar with its motto: “No Bones About Our Fish and Our Potatoes Can't See!" My father had knocked four little shops into one to create The Oyster Bar. My father was an expert carpenter and completely self-taught. If he needed to know something about plumbing, for example, he would go to the library and get out a book on plumbing. In his youth he had apprenticed as a tailor! He now ran the biggest fish restaurant on the South East coast and introduced the first crinkly chip. That restaurant was The Oyster Bar. My parents also opened another restaurant called Pauline's Pantry further along the promenade opposite the Clock Tower that was run by my mother (soon to be called Joe's Plaice after a fire that nearly destroyed The Oyster Bar).
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