Here are a lot of pictures and stories of us at Mountain Lake Resort Hotel. It's in Pembroke VA. Just outside of Blacksburg, in South West Va. If it looks familiar, that's because it was the setting for the Movie "Dirty Dancing". We were working at the Daniel Boone Hotel in Charleston WV. It was managed by the same company that owned Mountain Lake Resort.
Mountain Lake Hotel was first built in 1852. the old wooden hotel burnt in 1932 and the hotel you see in the picture above was finished in 1934. It is a seasonal resort. It opened Memorial Day and closed Labor Day. It is 7 miles up a mountain. It used to take 3 days to get to the hotel. That was by horseback or buggy.
We had an opportunity to go to Mt. Lake before it opened and help set it up for the 1980 season. It was great fun... don't get me wrong, there was a lot of work involved. You see, they got new furniture from one of their other hotels that got hit by a hurricane, The Admiral Benbow Hotel in Al. We got to be on the Mountain before any guests or other workers.
There was Livie - Olivia,
Livie was great to work with/for. She was a 'slave driver'. We had to get the hotel ready for the season. She worked our butts off. Below is a group of pics to show just how hard we worked.
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"Oh Boys..... |
Sig Hile! | Oh My God! |
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| Paratroopers-R-Us | Len., where do you think you're going? |
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| Ok Boys, let me inspect your work! | You did a good job! |
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| Got'cha! | Hi Chris! |
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| Whew!!!!! | We've almost gotten it in! | I fart in your general direction! |
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| Just a little more to the Left... | Ta Da! | 'You are holding so it doesn't fall on us?' |
Living on the mountain was a great opportunity. When the hotel opened, we worked anywhere from 12 to 16 hours a day. We would get up at 7:00, go over to the hotel dinning room and get it ready for breakfast, serve breakfast for 2 hours and then break down the dinning room and get it ready for lunch. Off for a couple of hours and then back in a couple of hours to serve lunch. Off for a few more hours then serve dinner. We didn't have sections. When guests would come in to the dinning room, they were assigned a server for their complete stay. There were several times it seemed that all my guests would talk to each other and wait until the last hour to come in, all at the same time. We were like the hotel's recreation directors. "Mountain Lake hotel is at 4000 ft. The top of the mountain is 4363 ft." The only TV on the mountain was in the TV room. It was there for people that just couldn't do without one for a couple of days, it never did get any stations. It was 'Back to Nature'. There are trails to walk, and hills to climb. They even have a golf course. If you ever get the chance to go, Do It!
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