50 years ago I used to go to the jazz “club” at the Highfield hotel.

It was held in the cellar.

The entry was through one narrow door.

You could not see across the first room because of the tobacco smoke.

In those days everyone smoked. It was considered “cool” (back then that meant not hot) to blow smoke into the face of the object of your desires (they used to be called girls, now it seems, anything goes). Maybe I used the wrong tobacco because it never worked for me.

However, to buy the object of your (my) desires a drink usually did the trick.

The “trick” was a kiss and a cuddle.

Anyway I digress, the point that I am trying to make was that about 200 “beatnics” risked their lives on a weekly basis in a fire trap.

The Beatles put an end to it all ( I even had to shave off my Che Guevara beard).

Being “cool” I used to Quote the Bard. “He that hath no beard is less than a man”.

This probably explained my virginity for those years!

But I did try!