As disgraced former US President Richard Nixon was fond of saying during his time in the White House: Let me make this perfectly clear.
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Under no circumstances is this a criticism of the excellent series, Our History, Our Memories (OHOM). This appears each Wednesday on this newspaper's website. There'll probably be a promo on this week's feature on this very page. (Look to the left).
Since the series started earlier this year a variety of topics have been covered - Bob Hope's crash landing in Laurieton during the war years, the North Coast Steamship Company, some bloke who did something in Gloucester (okay, we didn't read that one) among others. Local history, you can't beat it.
However, we do believe our good friends behind the OHOM may have dropped the ball in the recent reminisce into life at Foggs Hotel in Taree just after WWII.
This segment recalled the couple who acquired the hotel in 1945 or thereabouts. They were famous cello players, or pianists or trombonists, or something to do with music.
We guess they may have made some contribution to life at the area's most famous hostelry. However, we urge those in charge of OHOM to revisit the Foggs Hotel story and focus on the hotel's most significant epoch - 1978 to 1989, or, as it is known in the annals of Barrington Coast history, the O'Mahony Era. (TO'ME).
This was when Robert John 'Bob' O'Mahony was the Mine Host. There were countless highlights. Taree Old Bar won the Group Three footy comp just about every year back then, so Foggs was the venue for numerous Mad Monday celebrations, all conducted strictly within the rules of social decorum.
Foggs (or Foggs International Hotel, as it was known) hosted many notable events under O'Mahony's watch - Taree's first and only Winter Olympics, Davis Cup ties between Australia and Sweden in the saloon bar, a barrier trial for a Taree Cup contender in the packed front bar, numerous cricket 'tests' while soulful renditions by the renowned 'Foggs Tabernacle Choir', led by Bill Hutchinson, usually late on a Friday night, had to be heard to be appreciated.
The first Foggs Carols by Candlelight held on Christmas Eve in 1979 was just reaching its crescendo when it was called off because Flash Towers burnt his thumb while holding his cigarette lighter. It was the home of the $1.99 counter lunch, $1 hot dogs and three hour happy hours because devious patrons kept turning back the clock when O'Mahony wasn't looking.
Related:
Tigers Hockey Club players and supporters celebrated long and hard there on Saturday nights, even when they lost and sometimes out of hockey season, usually spurred on by Richie Hardy and Gooma Mitchell.
A Golden Era indeed. Time to revisit, Our History, Our Memories.