| Bob Morrissey |
8/14/09 |
It may be interesting to note that at one time, confirmed in a Playboy article, this Holiday Inn had the most expensive hotel room in the world- $2000/night (if I remember correctly). The room had a 9'circular bed with champagne and whisky sour on-tap in the headboard. The room included a 24-hour, on-call chef and, I think, chauffeured limo. |
| Sheppard Burton |
5/17/10 |
There were a lot of us young boys from G-burg Highschool working at the Holiday Inn in '73 and '74. There were two restaurants there, and two bars; one of each-- bottom floor and top... Boys being boys, we had some times - we did. The Top-O-The Village Restaurant was one of the only places to eat in town at the time, and we did lots of large parties. We held entertainment venues for such names as,"The Platters", and others from that era. Once we did two very big weddings in one weekend; and they paid for a total of close to 500 cases of Michelob in cans. The guests, however, almost all drank from the open bar, leaving the beer in our walk in refrigerator--paid for and unbeknown to the management downstairs...Our kitchen manager, a great old fellow named Joe Gamores, told us that if we could get it out-- we could have it. He added that he had no more food coming in for two weeks; giving us time to plan, execute, and most importantly--drink beer! For joy, for joy...Happy hippies we were we were! For the first time in our work history, WE ALL GOT TO WORK ON TIME, STAYED LATE, AND DIDN'T MIND BEING THERE! At the end of the two weeks we got the word from Joe to get the beer out or else. We just couldn't see giving all that good beer back to the Holiday Inn management to sell again...SO--- A van pulled up outside of the trash elevator exit, and we wheeled the beer out on the trash cart in several loads covered by a sheet. We decadent young rouges had successfully pilfered, rather I might say-- absconded-- with about 485 cases of Michelob in 12 oz cans in a two week period. A true tale of the Inn and the Village. We sat on the side of 355 and drank beer until the cops would chase us around the lake and into Sharon Woods. This went on for many more weeks as the beer was stashed in wooded areas in several places convenient to our pedestrian needs. When I tell folks about this, I am-- most times--disbelieved. But as I live and breathe... IT IS THE TRUTH !! There are many more tales of the Inn, but that one will do for this forum... Thanks for reading it !! Sheppard Burton-- dishwasher/busboy/cook 1975 class of GHS. |
| Kris Antonelli |
8/11/10 |
This was the very first hotel I stayed in with my parents, just as it is pictured, in the mid-70s after IBM transferred my father from Chicago to the Bethesda "Rusty Bucket" office. My sister and brother and I thought it was so cool..but we were all under 11-years old!! |
| Laura Farkas Miller |
9/25/10 |
This Holiday Inn hosted my brother's wedding reception! |
| Danny Hays |
11/3/10 |
I went to that pool several times. Look! A diving board! I was on that board everytime I went there as I was on the diving team at the Montgomery Village "All Seasons Aquatic Club" in the early 70's. When's the last time to you heard it called that? I hear they tore down that indoor pool there in Montgomery Village. Bummer! That place was a big part of my childhood. |
| John Pitman |
2/12/11 |
My favorite memory associated with Holiday Inn is when our band Retrospect first played there around 1981 or 1982. After our initial 4-hour wedding reception engagement we were hired another hour and another hour. By the end of the sixth hour we were just shot--lips frazzled and voices about gone. We were asked to play yet ANOTHER hour (this was in our early days, so we had to repeat a lot of what we'd just played already). Larry our band leader explained our total fatigue to our client, whereupon a wedding guest hearing this pulled out wads of cash from his pocket and placed it on our music stands as incentive to keep going. From where we mustered the extra energy I have no idea, but we gave then yet another hour! It's interesting to note that, as institutions, both Holiday Inn and Retrospect are around to this day! |
| Dave Nelson |
6/2/11 |
To Shep I DO remember the beer fiascoe as well. I worked down stairs as dish washer, bus boy and kitchen extra as well. Remember the trips to the roof with Sonny B. Chasity/Chaz was still in diapers then. :-) |
| Nancy Zanner Correll |
7/27/11 |
Hey, Shep, I remember you well from GHS! I was class of '74. Do you still have all that lovely long blond hair? I no longer have my waist-length brown hair...and the brown is now looking rather gray... I believe your story about the beer at Holiday Inn. That sounds like you! ;-) The Inn was about the only large hotel in town for a very long time, and its presidential suite was nationally famous for being the most expensive hotel room in the whole country at one point. I've attended many functions and enjoyed many meals there over the years. |
| Brian K. Blough |
4/2/13 |
My first wife and I had our "honeymoon" here on September 2, 1978, the night before I took her with me back to the Defense Language Institute-Foreign Language Center in Monterey, CA. where I was attending school while in the US Air Force. |
| Tim Sleeth |
4/29/13 |
My fist wife and I spent our wedding night here in May, 1974. Then we took a long ride up to New Hampshire where we lived for the next five years while I was in the US Air Force and going to college after the service. |
| Lynn Rister Kelly |
9/29/15 |
My family and I stayed there in 1977 when we moved to Maryland |
| Martha Deppa Kirkpatrick |
12/17/16 |
This Holiday Inn is actually sitting on the spot where our barn was located. My father owned Country Gardens Nursery on this land which was at the top of what was sometimes called Demorytown because most of the folks living there were related. In fact my folks bought the farm from them and Dad eventually developed the land to the nursery selling to Kettler Brothers in the late 60's. |
| R. Mark McMasters |
1/8/17 |
Martha Deppa Kirkpatrick, a family I know lived in a house with a round front portico next to the Holiday Inn during the '70's. Was that house on your property, and do you know if photos of the house can be found? I know it would be a great memory for my friend! |
| Dave Walling |
6/21/18 |
The comment about an IBM person being transferred caught my attention: I lived in this hotel while waiting for my apartment to be ready during my first week of working at IBM in Rockville in 1983. |
| Steve Marcella |
3/14/19 |
The Holiday Inn sits on the site of my grandparents’ old house. Charlie and Erma Demory built the original white clapboard house, and one of the trees on their property survives. They lived next door to the Deppa’s referenced in R. Mark McMasters’ comment. They also had a large family of cousins next door, so they called the neighborhood “Demorytown”. Grandma & Grandpa later moved into a larger house across the street, situated where the Montgomery Village sign now stands. That house was picked up and moved a couple hundred yards or so north, and it now houses a Wells Fargo branch. |
