Dreamland And The Odeon Cinema.

A Memory of Kingsgate.

I remember Dreamland because I used to hang out with Derek and Brian Brenner whose father manufactured and ran racing machines there. You would sit in front of a sloping board and roll balls through holes in order to advance your car towards the finish line, to win a prize. I was going to St Lawrence College in Ramsgate,and as my parents were in Sudan,North Aftrica, the Brenner family let me hang out with them.
I used to sneak into the Odeon Cinema,which was adjacent to Dreamland, without paying. I would wait at a side exit until someone opened the door,and came out so I could slip in. Around that time the "Free Film " movement in British Cinema was underway and someone made the documentary,"Dreamland,Oh My Dreamland",which depicted the ordinary working man on vacation.
I remember going to coffee bars in Broadstaires,Westgate and Margate and trying to pick up local girls and trying to avoid getting into fights with the local boys. St Lawrence College was an all boys public school then, and the locals thought, that we thought, we were better than them.