memories of the best days out as a child

[Loriycs]

I remember going to Clacton on Sea. There was a Butlins there that had a cafe/ bar 'under' the swimming pool and we watched peoples legs in the water as we drank our drinks. Bet its not there now.not a best day out but a vivid memory. One of best days out was at Chessington before it was a theme park. I must have only been about 4 cos the photos are in black and white but i remember it clearly.

holidays in Great yarmouth and riding on 'the snails'

family day in chessington when we were older (about 14 ish)

prior to that every summer at least once a week whole family - cousins auntys and all down the beach, (nan bringing a sugery current bun and wondering why the flys were around her! lol) me swimming out further and further only to have my uncle grab my ankle!

day trips to lulworth cove, and corfe castle. we didn't have much but a bottle of squash, duvet and pillow in the back cold roast chicken sarnies and a load of hills for us to walk up -we were sorted! (and the best bit of it all........... the fact we had an estate car so the boot was opened the duvet layed out and we ate our dinner out the back of the car! was fab! didn't have 'holidays' thou.

We always used to go to Whitby for weekends away. We used to play with inflatables in the sea. I must have been a hardy child, I could never do that now.

We used to spend the entire summer under canvas in France. I have such good memories of those holidays. We were allowed loads of freedom and I used to go to the boulangerie every morning and get bread for everyone.

I think that's why I ended up doing French at University and moving there when I was older.

We used to go to flamborough head, it is a love bay, white stones under the water, huge caves in the cliffs, wid birds, fishing boats. We would take a picnic, towels and a blanket and be there all day.

polzeath beach in cornwall - about a 7 hour journey from where we lived inland! Use to stay at the sunnyside hotel in camelford - to this day lemondate still reminds of dinners at the hotel. I remember the big beach and feeling sick with excitement waiting to rent a surfboard for 50 pence I think!! Anticipating the cold water but knowing it would be a brief discomfort before the thrilling surfing (on my tummy only!!). Now, I live near a beach in ireland and all I can think about is the thrill of the swim worth the cold water - the answer is always NO!! Oh to be young and brave again!!

Windsor Great Park, with the monkeys climbing over the car.

we had a camper van when I was young and my best memories were always of going somewhere, sleeping-bagged in the back....while mum and dad argued about where to stop. I loved looking at the lights passing the window and feeling my lifr waws in someone elses hands. Irresponsibility had such cosy

Family picnics in the Brecon Beacons. Aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.We would listen to tapes of Max Boyce on the way, and wave to the rellies as we overtook each other. Tea made on a little camp stove for the adults. The dog would always roll in something foul and stink the car out on the way home.

we only had 2 holidays in a caravan yet the smell of a match lighting a paraffin burner brings me straight back to being cosy and that childlike irresponsibility being almost insignificant amongst the family

Nice thread.

I loved caravan holidays as a kid - meeting the other kids on the site and playing with them and exploring nearby fields, woods.

Good memories of rock pooling and building sandcastles on small beaches in Dorset and Devon.

We would do day trips for a week on the family railcard. We would never get told where we were going that day, it was a game to wrangle the tickets off my dad.

We did things like museums in London, Blackpool for the Pleasure Beach, Knaresborough (jokes from the joke shop and liquorice root from the apothecary), York. Sometimes my dad would hire a car for the week and we'd do stuff in the Yorkshire Dales.

Best holiday though was probably Southend to visit my dad's family. My sis and I stayed with two of our great aunts in their big house. One started teaching me the piano, there were toys and old-fashioned books around and a choice of cereal for breakfast!!

When we lived in Aldershot we'd go to Frencham (sp) Pond, and spend all day playing on a tire inner tube and catching little, wiggly, fish things(I know, blinding you with science.)

I still remember coming home, lying in the back seat of our Morris Minor, with the sun dappling through an avenue of trees.

Bliss.

CSSM day camp in Frinton on Sea every year

Picnicing at Bodium castle

Longleat when the monkeys chewed off the windscreen wiper rubber

what will our kids have? holidays to foreign beaches that all look the same? I love the one about the Dad taking them all off on mystery tours. I'm getting maudlin!!

Alton Towers when you could get donkey rides there. (Little more than gardens at the time).

Gong to the fabulous outdoor swimming pool at Trentham Gardens. (now demolished).

Holidays in Rhyl (Mrs Kelly's bed and breakfast and Great Yarmouth (in caravans).

Going for picnics with the family whilst my dad and uncle fished. Great fun the time we realised (too late) that the blanket had been put over a cowpat.

My boys have far more and better holidays than we ever did, but we still do day trips with them too (been to Llandudno today).

Moshie..the Black Mountain whinberry picking for us....about 15 of us and the best picnic ever..sandwiches, home-cooked ham, salmon (tinned mashed with butter and vinegar), tomatous, cucumber and onion in vinegar, hard-boiled eggs, followed by Victoria Sandwich or coffee and walnut cake, slabs of fruit cake, apple pie and best of all a huge trifle in a glass bowl!!

Tea on the primus stove, council pop and we weere happy as could be.

Or Barry Island or Porthcawl on a trip......sand, paddling, deckchairs etc etc...still do this with my grand-children especially now we have a train line!! There's posh!!

Day trip to Sutton-On-Sea, sitting by a breakwater, lettuce and salad cream sandwiches, leaky tupperware beakers wih lids, donkey ride, wooden toy boats on the boating pond behind the prom.

Holiday days out in Devon - starting the day running in a gang with the children from the farm we sayed on, pushing between warm flanks of jersey cows waiting to be milked, day out on Putsborough beach, paddling, rock-pooling, digging - Dad digging us a speedboat or racing car out of sand - salad cream and lettuce sandwiches, one Mars bar cut into 4 bits to share....and then if we were really lucky, a stop off at Jenny Wren's Cottage for a cream tea on the way home - looking at the big enclosure with guinea pigs - and feeling pleased with our wit at 'getting' the sign above the low door: duck or grouse!