How did you spend your summers as a child?

Question

My Aunt and Uncle won some money on Vernons Football pools back in the 1950's. They bought a caravan, near the sea and I spent 7 happy years with my Cousins at Hayling Island. Also, during this time, My Mum and Dad used to take me to Butlins (I was a luckyGirl) at Brighton and Margate. In 1958 I developed chicken pox whilst on holiday at Butlins in Cliftonville, Margate. We had gone there by coach but we weren't allowed to travel back. My Dad had to pay for a taxi from Margate to Guildford. It cost him £10. How much would it cost today?

Robert C, It wasn't Higworth Farm Caravan Site was it? I may have competed in a sack race against you. If I remember rightly, I won. Lol!

Answer 1

Ten times that!

I used to stay at Hayling Island in the sixties at a caravan park but can't remember the name of the place.This would have been about 1962-63-64. We also stayed at one in Selsey.
It's odd because after years of Spain and other travels, I still fancy staying in a caravan!

There was something magical about the camp shop and bar and the close proximity of fish and chips and the beach bingo!

Answer 2

I have a fabulous childhood - mum and dad took us camping - we went on loads of walks and rock pooling with our little fishing nets - also went fossil hunting. If the weather was nice on a weekend, we would be woken up at the crack of dawn by our parents and shoved into the transit van my dad converted into a camper van to go off camping for the weekend. My mum had two allotments - we all had our own minature veggie patch which we had to look after. Mum taught us how to cook and sew and dad taught us how to wire a plug and change a car wheel! I am only 41 but things have changed so much - we grew up in poverty as many people did in the 70's but we had some fun! I remember that mum found 50 pence on the beach in Brean - we all had a whole lot of chips each instead of sharing - that was a real treat! My dad put a hose in the back garden and would chase us around getting us wet - he also bought home an old car and put it in the back garden for us to play - if we were naughty, mum used to send us out there until we calmed down!

Answer 3

I spent a lot of my summers at the local lido with the neighbourhood children and on a park called 'the forest', which you wouldn't venture onto now.

For two weeks each year we went to Birkenhead, just the other side of the Mersey from Liverpool. I had a great aunt who lived in the damp basement of an insurance company in Hamilton Square. She was the caretaker of the building
and was lovely. From there we travelled daily to places like Egremont, West Kirby, Hoylake, Moreton and New Brighton, which all had beaches. We used to go over to Liverpool on the ferry and had cruises on the Royal Iris, which had a fish and chip shop and bars. They also had dancing all day.

I had the most magical childhood and wouldn't change it for all the world. We were poor but lucky.

Answer 4

If I wasn't sent to my grandparents for the summer in upstate New York, Ohio,or Michigan (my grandfather was a dredgeman and worked the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway), then I was what I call a FREE RANGE KID. I had no scheduled activities like so many kids today. No (gag) 'play dates.' I came and went pretty much as I pleased during the day. I BETTER be home by dinner or it was cold. No cell phones, so I couldn't just call. I'd get up in the a.m. and my bike and I would be gone. Sometimes I ate lunch at a friends or actually went home for lunch.
When I was at my grandparents, I was going, going, going all day, too, until dark, and then often back out after supper until late at night, or my friends came over and hung out at my grandparents'. I was free ranging there, too.

Answer 5

spent my summers from age of 4 to 16 in a cute cottage that my parents rented every summer, same people rented theirs and some were friends of my parents and some were relatives. Everyday was swimming in the lake and biking and playing with all the other kids some we had not seen since the last summer. When I got to be about 13, we discovered that there was a boy/girl attraction and we got together and danced to the hit songs of the day. At 16 I begged my parents to not go there because we lived near the ocean and all my friends would take a bus and hang at the beach all day,and play cards and get food from concession stands and get wonderful tans,and I wanted to do that too, so we stopped going, I think very kindly about my yrs on the lake and they were very happy and fun yrs.

Answer 6

I spent every summer with either all my cousins or as I got older, my friend Carrie. When I was young, my mother took care of me, sis, and three cousins. We would go to the library when it rained and to the pool everyday when it didnt. I have great memories. When I got a little older, my friend Carrie and I would stay at her house 2-3 days, then back to my house for 2-3 days. We would go to the pool and run around chasing boys.We also spent alot of time playing with our animals. We live in a small town in the South (not much to do). When we were able to drive, we would go to the next town and go to the mall. Looking back it was no big deal, but at that time it was awesome!!!

Answer 7

AT 12 looking older that my age I worked school holiday in a relatives cafe
I would have loved to go to Butlins but my parents didn't like the idea. I had to wait until I had my own children to go almost every year when they were younger

Answer 8

After the War and my Dad came out of the army He went to work down the Pit, there used to be a place in Skegness called Miners Holiday Camp (I think thats what it was called) it was like the poor mans Butlins camp....lol....we went there a couple of times, enjoyed the fancy dress competitions, my Dad dressed me up once as Tessy O'shea, I didn't even know at the time who she was, I was only about 5yrs, had a tennis racket covered in brown paper and the "strings" drawn on with a pen...lol....but it was when I was a lot older and saw that lady on TV, I felt a bit miffed....she was quite fat....so my Dad thought of her to dress me up as eh!!!!!!....lol

Answer 9

Aww! memories eh?
we used to ride ponies, climb trees eat the apples and leave the cores on the tree. Swim in the lake, eat fish and chips, and cream soda with liquorice!!
Camp out with the dog ( not always a success, he heard every noise!)
Stay out till it got dark, and scare ourselves in the woods!
If mum and dad were not too busy we would drive to the coast, it is only 20 minutes away and spend the day on the beach, and come home really hungry and tired. Then have a warm bath (feel your sunburn) and fall asleep.

We were lucky to grow up in the countryside.

Answer 10

Every summer was spent at the beach, either Seal Beach or Newport Beach in So. Calif. We also spent some time at my cousin's lodge in Big Bear, CA. If my mother couldn't take us to the beach we rode the bus to Bellflower to catch the Pacific Electric train to the beach. It made for a long trip but it was worth it.