Monday 28 July 2014

Summer Holls; Times Past.



Ah, summer holidays by the sea.

Ice creams, silly hats, crunchy sand sandwiches, an end of the pier show, rain, crazy golf, knickerbocker glories, more rain, more ice creams, then home again.

I've no idea where the above photo was taken, but I'm sure we had lots of fun. It was taken years before the obligatory 2 week cheap Spanish beach holidays were even thought of.

Our aspirations were lower; we didn't complain about soggy chips or lumpy beds, we just 'went with the flow' and made the most of it.

I honestly can't remember much about these early holidays, but I can recall small snippets. Times were good.

p.s. I presume my mother took the photo with her ancient Box Brownie; the woman peering from behind my sister was possibly an aunt.



19 comments:

  1. I can't recall seeing that photo before.

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  2. And not many of those pics, I bet. Limited to 12 or 24 exposures we were careful and sparing.
    My mum always treated us to a knickerbockerglory on the last day. Perhaps not the best idea before a long car journey home.

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  3. Ah what memories. I love the aunt peering around you two cute kids.

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  4. We don't have rain in summer but have similar photos from the fifties.

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  5. All us kids used to go to the beach on our own, swim in the sea and have such fun. We were only about 10 and our Mums trusted us to be sensible. Today I don't think this would happen, there's too much coddling going on.
    Briony
    x

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  6. Happy days. I recall my mother telling me that they used to stay in lodging houses, where they bought their own food and the landlady would cook it for them. My parents used to save all year for a two week holiday and were proud of the fact that they never missed a year. Holidays then were a family affair with grandparents, aunts and uncles and even neighbours tagging along - and as Cumbrian above says - how times have changed.

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  7. We stayed in either caravans or lodging houses. Somewhere to be reached by train obviously as no-one had a car. We had to be out of the lodgings by ten and couldn't return until teatime, which was a little tough on the rainy holidays. My dad was a good Games-maker-upper though so we always had fun. AND we had knitted cossies to wear too in the early years. Thanks for the memories Cro

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  8. Those were the days Cro. Loved frugal's reminder about knitted cossies - mine was green, embroidered with daisies. Lovely until it got wet then it did tend to sink round one's knees.
    I think we tend to remember through rose-tinted specs, but a trip on the train (30 miles to Skegness in my case)
    followed by a week of ice creams, chips, shrimps, the funfair (adored the big dipper), buckets and spades - all so innocent. Thanks for the reminder.

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  9. Some things never change. Children are always happy on a beach and sand castles will always be made.

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  10. Cro, Mom was the master of using the early brownie camera with the big flash bulbs. She took thousands of pictures and filled an entire album every year with photos of all the events from the year. My sister is the keeper of the photo albums now that she's gone. Later came the carousels with thousands of more pictures. I'm not sure my sister kept those. Choosing a album year and browsing through the pages bring flashback memory smiles from the days gone by. Today blogs and online journals will be left behind for grand children and great grand children to read about what their ancestors did for fun. It's a totally new and different world but child hood memories should always bring smiles, don't you think.

    Have a great childhood summer memory day.

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  11. We lived in Co. Durham and took the train to the seaside. We would rent a tent and franchises and couldn't change into our costumes until the tent was set up. I remember having to fill pockets around the bottom of the tent to anchor it from the wind. To save money, Mum would have made sandwiches (which always tasted better in the sea air). I have photos of the men in collar and ties and women in stockings and heels. It was quite a treat to go to the seaside. I also remember Dad and Grandad wearing knotted hankies on their heads as sunshade. Ice cream treats were 99's and Dad loved his wrinkles.

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    Replies
    1. That was supposed to say deck chairs not franchises! Dad loved his winkles, ugh!

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    2. How can you confuse 'franchises' and 'deck chairs'? Was your mind wandering?

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    3. While I am often guilty of letting my mind wander, this time I was innocent and the auto fill was to blame.

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  12. How very sweet!
    My first introduction to "Knickerbocker Glories" was reading about them in Harry Potter. They sound a mysterious and divine confection....

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    Replies
    1. They were (and probably still are) the highlight of every British seaside holiday.

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  13. I can see the strong resemblance between you and your grandsons in this photo.

    We lived on the coast and went to the beach nearly every day. When we were eight, we were allowed to walk to the beach by ourselves with our friends. My brother was two years older, and the time between my sixth and eighth birthday seemed an absolute age.

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