Page 39 - Bulletin 12 2008

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younger children. In September of the same year, one of the girls died of diphtheria. This
was Thalia who was 9 at the time. The year previously the youngest daughter, my Aunt

Theodora, had contracted polio at 5 years of age. My grandmother now felt that her place
was not running the tearoom but being at home to look after the children. The Olympia

Tearoom was sold to Costa and Sybil Pappayanis around 1937. This was the business rights

- not the building itself which was still owned by Mr. Lazarus.

From 1939 the family home - Arcadia in Windsor Road - became a boarding house. My
grandmother was a wonderful cook and the house was often filled with boarders. The

children were shifted from spot to spot in the house whenever the rooms they were in were
rented out! The Rhodesian Greeks often came to Kalk Bay on holiday; and one of the

families which boarded at the house was a Mr and Mrs Tselentis. I remember them very

well. They were both always immaculately dressed, he in a suit with fob watch, and she in a
beautiful dress. They would sometimes walk to the Kalk Bay Pavilion to have tea. I can

remember as a child always being delighted to bump into them at the beach. Mrs Tselentis

would nudge her husband, and he would dig about in his pockets and bring out a 6d or a
shilling for an ice cream! There were Greeks on holiday who stayed at the Kings or

Majestic but who would often come for a meal at Arcadia. (Fig. 2.18). Fish was the main
dish they wanted to eat and, this being abundant, they would often go down to the harbour

and buy the fish and bring it back for my grandmother to cook. She mostly, of course, did
this in Greek style, baking the whole fish, head and all. After dinner at Arcadia when the

tables were cleared, the card tables would come out, and the gambling would begin!

World War Two and after

With the coming of the Second World War, the Greek Royal family and the government in

exile were given asylum in South Africa. (Fig. 2.19). Their last child Princess Irene was
born here. They stayed in St James in the property known as ‘Stonehenge’. Sotiri Stavrou