Childhood Holidays

[Jazzy G]

We used to get away for at least a long weekend in Blackpool for the illuminations. We stayed at a hotel I'll always remember as Margaret's, but that's as far as those recollections go. I also remember us being at the Blackpool tramway centenary celebrations, probably where my love of them was born. A massive parade of them along the promenade. We always used to go to have a look around Rigby Road depot as well, because until about 20 years ago you just used to be able to wander up and look round there. It's all gated off now, presumably because it's run by a heritage Trust and they can be costly to maintain so they don't want to risk anything happening. It'd be me, my mum, my gran, and my great gran and her third husband. I went with my mum and step-dad in my early teens for a long weekend as well, but once my mum had married Colin and we'd moved out we couldn't get away as much as we used to. When I was in college after I left school I'd have Thursday off, and my gran would pick me up and take me to Cleveley's for the afternoon when the weather was nice. 

A few times I went to London with my gran and her second husband as he'd have a conference down there so it'd be on the company he worked for. One year we went to the Royal Tournament at Earl's Court. We'd always pick up one of those maps and I'd pore over it after we got home. 

The other one I remember is a week we spent at Pontins in "Southport" (Ainsdale) I used to hire a bike every day and just cycle around the main road of the camp. Went swimming a few times. Spent a lot of time in the arcade where they had Simpsons and TMHT (as well as the original Street Fighter, which I'd watch people play). If I remember right I finished the Simpsons in there for the first time. I also won a TV quiz, and was invited to go to the national final, but it was all the way down the opposite end of the country and there was no way we could have made it there. One day we also went into Southport to meet my Gran who'd come over for a day out. I think that was when I realised quite how far away the sea is at Southport. That beach is big, to the point that they used to use it as overflow parking, and Red Rum was trained there. 

[Fog Dude]

On 9/23/2021 at 12:41 AM, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

One of the funnier Spain holidays was a few months after my aunt passed away, we took my cousin Kate (who I've always had more of a sister bond with as we're the closest in age) to Estartit with us to lift her spirits and took our older cousin as a company, we had one day where it was like being back home as it belted it down for practically the entire day so we spent most of it in the club under the hotel in a kids/teen club watching movies

Knowing this forum, I was worried where that story was going for a minute there! 

On 9/23/2021 at 2:51 PM, patiirc said:

We were lucky to have Weston Super Mud and Burnham on Sea relatively close, so day trips and weekends away became the norm there, usually camping but eventually one of these tent/caravan things I've forgotten the name of. 

Many commiserations. Having lived on that stretch of coast for most of my life, domestic holidays should've been more underwhelming, but other seaside towns always seemed to have a lot more going on and at least the water looked and felt cleaner. 

Anyway, I'd count the two trips to the Algarve 15 years apart as the first and last childhood holidays before I flew to Germany alone just after my GCSEs. Both of those involved grandparents as well, since they were covering the cost. And obviously I can't remember the first one since I was 7 months old at the time. The other set of grandparents co-owned, with my uncle, the caravan in Swanage we used to borrow for a few days every year.

In terms of holidays my parents actually saved up for themselves, it used to be a week in Cornwall, then camping in Brittany, more caravans in Aquitaine and finally two trips to Disneyland in consecutive years in the late 1990s, the first in unofficial nearby accommodation and the second in the least expensive (and most distant from the park itself) official resort. My Dad always insisted on taking the ferry or the tunnel so we never flew until that return visit to Portugal which turned out to be a last hurrah in terms of getting the whole family together for a getaway.

Since then I've done Barcelona with just my Dad and Rome with just Mum, but even those were 15+ years ago now and I generally do my own thing when it comes to travel. I finally stayed overnight at the nearest Butlins – Minehead, naturally – in 2018, but I live about 200m from the local Haven resort so I'd probably never stay at one of those because it wouldn't feel like enough of a break from the norm.

[patiirc]

11 hours ago, Fog Dude said:

Many commiserations. Having lived on that stretch of coast for most of my life, domestic holidays should've been more underwhelming, but other seaside towns always seemed to have a lot more going on and at least the water looked and felt cleaner. 

 

Yip, other seaside towns had more to offer. Repeat trips to Brean Downs, also we're a highlight Yuk! . At least all that time in Weston wasn't wasted, sent some stuff for an arcade research ages ago about the evolution of Olympia Arcade, Mr. Bs  Dolphin Market  Fishbar, and Weston In-Shops, amongst other things. Me mum had her offices in Weston at one point when she was doing her whole home care thing. 

Apparently Dolphin has been knocked down, Did Weston notice?? 

[Thunderplex]

A week in Scarborough was my yearly childhood holiday.  The West Court Hotel off Ramshill Road. Went back in my late 20’s and it had turned into a dosshouse.

[Cousin Jim Bob]

On 9/22/2021 at 4:23 PM, DavidB6937 said:

I was always happy going to Blackpool. I thought it was bloody brilliant as a kid. The piers, Pleasure Beach and all that. I've not been back since my dad died because I just think I'd have a mental breakdown but I do have incredibly fond memories that I hang on to. I would really love to take my kids one day just for the emotional connection even if it is mostly a shithole.

 

I work there quite abit atm and might be moving their permanently soon. Alot of it is still really tacky and run down and the place does trade on nostalgia. The arcades have gone to shit too.

Me and my partner look after my 6 year old nephew a fair bit and its like paradise to him though. So I'm sure your kids would love it. The Pleasure Beach, Sandcastle water park, Blackpool Zoo, the Sea Life centre are all loads of fun.  On a nice day taking the tram along the front or walking along one of the piers and getting an ice cream is still lovely.  There is some belting chippy's as well. I think the tower and illuminations are total bollocks but kids might like them. There is a very cool, huge mural on the ground now near the tower celebrating all the comedians who have played Blackpool, which is fantastic to read.

Its a disaster at night but for a family holiday, still loads to do. 

 

[Frankie Crisp]

I was dead lucky to go to the Med for childhood holidays; we didn’t have much but my old man used to work 6.5 days a week to provide for us and give us a good holiday. Even when he was on strike he’d make sure we never went without a holiday.

We mainly did the Balearics but also did the Greek Islands, so I saw loads of great places before I was a teenager. One specific holiday I’ll always remember was in Cala Millor, Majorca. It was very much me and my old man doing our thing and my Mum and her daughter doing theirs. We played footy loads but one day the hotel arranged a proper 11-a-side game of footy on a big sand pitch. It was Dad and lads, but my arse went as a very shy and painfully small/skinny kid, but I remember doing a one-two on the edge of the box with a waiter who went on to score and came and lifted me up in celebration. I don’t think he was a nonce.

I also remember a holiday in 1989 where my Mum and Dad were unable to coexist but still took us away. One night we were just messing around in the hotel boozer and the folks had a big barney. Instead of cooling down and having a conversation like adults, my old man decided to wind Mum up by volunteering for a plate dance on stage. You know the script; suggestive music whilst naked blokes move plates around to cover their arse, knob and bollocks. My Mum was fuming but, again, rather than handle it like a grown-up, she then signed up to do the female version. You’ve never known confusion like a ten-year old seeing his Mum move plates around to cover her bush in 90 degree heat whilst your ice cream melts.

They divorced the next year.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Frankie Crisp

[Mr_Danger]

Ahh the old passive aggressive erotic plate dance duel, a classic manoeuvre in the toxic relationship.

[Surf Digby]

I had a good mix of holidays as a kid, mostly around England and Wales, but one in the south of France when I was 9, and then one in Benidorm when I was 11.

The ones on home soil were all pretty varied. Pontins at Blackpool when I was four with my Grandparents, where they bought a bag full of sticks of rock, and when we returned to the chalet that night, the drawer that they'd put the rock in was crawling with ants.

That's my sister looking proud of herself with the ball, and my Gran looking like Ronnie Corbett in the doorway.

 

We also stayed in Blackpool in 1983, but in a hotel this time, The Phildene. It had a fancy (in 1970s terms) bar in the basement with lots of dark varnished wood and a tabletop Space Invaders machine that I pestered my parents for 10p to play on, and lasted all of about 20 seconds. The hotel was notable as it was directly opposite the Seaview, which was the basis for a childrens TV show that started just as we returned.
It's easy to pin this as as 1983, as this is when I bought my Princess Leia (in Boushh disguise) and C3PO (with removable limbs) figures. This was also the holiday where I got stung by a wasp at Blackpool Zoo and had to go down in the accident book as an "animal related injury".
The Doctor Who exhibition was still next to (and underneath) Woolworths, which was awesome. I got a Tardis pencil case and a pen with a clip on the top, which I still have somewhere. I was eyeing up the postcard of Nyssa from the Terminus episode, but as my Mum had the money, that wasn't happening.

I remember there being quite a few foggy mornings where the top of the tower wasn't visible, and one day where the fog was so low that you couldn't even see the bottom of the legs, as if it had disappeared.

I still love Blackpool. It's not what it was, but it's got piers and shelters for you to eat chips in while it's pouring down, like a proper seaside town should. I've got two weeks residential in Bolton coming up, so will no doubt use that as an excuse to pop over one evening.

 

Two years in a row we went to Hunstanton, once in the trailer tent, and then once in the caravan. The first year was notable in that David Prowse made an appearance at a toy shop in his Darth Vader outfit, and I got to visit a modern swimming pool for the first time, with a waterslide and jacuzzies, instead of the Victorian ones back home.

The second year it rained constantly, waterlogging the field that the caravan was in. This was the first year we had the caravan though, so it felt better being out of the rain than in a tent where you can see the roof starting to dip. On one of the few days that we had sunshine, we figured it would be a good time to try the outdoor pool (another first for me). I was a decent swimmer, so ran and jumped in without thinking to test it with my toe. For whatever reason I assumed it would be the same temperature as an indoor pool.
It wasn't.
Not by a long shot.
It was so cold that the shock knocked the breath out of me and I had to be rescued by some random woman.

We did some Butlins and Pontins in the days before they were redeveloped, which at the time still seemed amazing places to me. Bognor, Minehead, Pwllheli and Seacroft for my 9th birthday. 
This is me and my sister at Pwllheli, which thanks to my Dad's preference for black and white film in his camera, looks like it was taken in the 1940s.

 

The fact that the sites still had the old style dining halls, chalets and clubhouses meant that I used to think Hi-De-Hi was set in the present day.

The pools were the real kings of Butlins. Bognor had the big indoor one with the glass panels in the side so people in the cafe/bar underneath could look at your legs, and if you were a cool kid like me and had goggles, you could dive down and look through the windows at them.

Minehead's outdoor pool was nothing short of amazing. Slides, water cannons, fountains, big bucket dropper things, crowned with the monorail going over the top of it.

 

 

 

And in another incident that contradicts my claims to being a decent swimmer, the first day in this pool I went down one of the waterslides with way too much enthusiasm, legs up in the air and came off the end almost upside down and got a lung full. As I clung to the edge of the slide spluttering, my Dad had to wade into the pool to rescue me, still wearing his leather sandals (which caused the dye to stain his feet black).

 

I remember one year staying at Great Yarmouth with my Scottish cousins in scorching weather, which would have been great had we not spent the entire week picking greenfly out of our hair and our ice creams. This was the year I learned about friction burns, as we went into Wally's Windmill Playhouse and with it being so hot I took my vest off and went down a plastic tube slide. 

France was a milestone as it was my first time abroad, the first time (probably the only time) I saw my Mum drunk as the constant refills meant she underestimated how much sangria she'd drank, and the spectacle of topless sunbathing. I remember one day we were at the kids club on the camp site and a bunch of us were up on the fence, discretely appreciating the natural beauty of a particular young lady on the beach next to it, when one of the bigger (bully) kids thought it would be a good idea to throw a handful of sand onto her.
The France trip was particularly great because for something to read on the way, my parents chose Zoids collected comics vol.1 which was all kinds of awesome. I also saw Brewster's Millions, which I didn't really get. 

Benidorm was better though. We were in a hotel on the 16th floor (well, the 15th as there was no 13th floor), which was a good ten more floors than anything I'd been in before. It had a balcony with a view out to sea (where we could see Peacock Island silhouetted by the lightning), lots of marble and glass crystal everywhere, it's own little arcade area (with Super Sprint, Gryzor and another one that I forget) and a pool with a little island in the middle with a couple of palm trees on.
We were close to the main beach, but there was another one further up in a bit of a cove that we liked going to. It wasn't a great deal quieter, but it had a load of big rocks at the back that I could scramble around in, and some had quartz crystals growing on the underside.
We did the Pirate Adventure night, we played crazy golf (where one hole was deemed so difficult that it was agreed that if you did the first part on your first shot, you could deduct 1 point from your score. All Hell broke loose when I got a hole in one, and demanded that the deduction still apply, making it a "hole in none"), and I played Operation Wolf at the cafe next door.
There was also a market stall selling T-shirts where I was mesmerised by one with the artwork from Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album on it. So much so that hadn't even noticed the T-shirt next to it had a picture of some glamour model with her norks out. Of course, my Mum seeing me gawping at this rack of T-shirts assumed I'd fallen under the spell of said temptress and forcibly moved me away, not even slightly convinced by my claims that I was looking at Eddie, disembowelled in his icy wasteland.

I look at this photo of us, and I think "everyone looks so young". Except for my Grandad, who looks really old, but that's because he always looked old, even in his thirties.

Check my Dad trying to look a bit cool and casual, and me looking like a prototype Sheldon Cooper.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Nostalgia Nonce
See/sea correction. See?

[The Masked Poster]

Anyone mention Talacre? 

[air_raid]

I was in my 30s when I discovered Saundersfoot wasn’t a myth my parents made up to persuade me we had holidays I couldn’t remember.

7 hours ago, The Masked Poster said:

Anyone mention Talacre? 

Was there (briefly) a couple of months back when we couldn’t decide if it was worth braving the motorway traffic all the way to Llandudno. Which you’ll know it was, if you frequent Chippy Tea.