Do you have any childhood seaside memories ?

FloraDora I had forgotten the sea battles! It was great fun.

Grandmabatty

Scarborough in the late 60s. We had always holidayed closer to home ie Scotland. We stayed in a b and b for the first time. The weather was hot and sunny and we were on the beach most days. The lovely park was a favourite too (forgotten the name) I think there was a boating pond. It was glorious spending time in the sunshine and running into the sea. A haar came down which we ignored and we ended up sunburnt. We played at cricket outside the b and b which was exotic to us scots. We loved it so much, we went back the following year.

It was Peasholm park they had little boats you could take out on the lake and staged a " battle at sea " with canons etc. on the lake once a week .

Paddling in perishing cold sea, losing site of where mum and dad were sitting on the beach, panic!🙀

This was then followed by a shivering me being given an “exfoliating” rub down with a sandy beach towel and told to “toughen up”
Possibly a meat past sandwich (sometimes) with added sand
and a nice cup of tea from a flask. Happy days😆

Paris, your posts are so therapeutic. It's lovely to share memories when (like me) you no longer have anyone to share them with in real life. They are just trapped in your head or on faded photos that only you will ever look at.

As a child we would always holiday in the West Country as we lived near Bristol. So Weymouth or Bournemouth were favourites where we'd stay in rooms usually above a pub which suited dad.

If we couldn't afford a holiday mum would arrange day trips often by coach and we'd go to Porthcawl, Barry or Weston super Mare. Always armed with a picnic and flask of tea. Swing boats, donkey rides and of course the grand old pier at Weston.

Then in 1966 dad won £100 on the premium bonds, which was a fortune, and my parents bought a caravan on a site in Charmouth Dorset. It was the oldest van on the site, probably 1940's, with gas lighting and lovely wood panelling.

The site didn't have a club house or anything other than a shower block and a small shop selling essentials including sweets and ice cream!

I would spend my days playing with children from other caravans down by the River Char or wandering up Golden Cap. I made a lot of friends to whom I wrote for many years. I still think of one girl in particular from Birmingham. Her mum was French, which was quite exotic back then. Rosemary Jones are you reading?

We went to the caravan at every opportunity, Easter, summer, weekends but after 4 seasons the site owners said we must buy one of their new vans. We couldn't afford it so that was the end of that. The poor old van was probably scrapped.

After that we holidayed at Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower where a colleague of dad's owned a chalet and we got it cheaply. By then I had my beloved dog with whom I'd wander the gorse covered cliffs or the beach.

I remember a very old couple in the next door chalet who had retired there from the Valleys. He was an ex coal miner and they really were the salt of the earth. His name, I will never forget, was Archie Bottle.

One day he lit a bonfire and a strong wind whipped up. It scorched his garden to a cinder and nearly burnt his and our chalet down. He stood there with a blackened face poor old man. Dad did what he could to help but thereafter he would sing the "poor old Archie Bottle" song that made me giggle no end. Weren't we wicked!

Yes, my parental Granny used to live in a cottage, one of a terrace, a hop, skip across the road, down some steps to the beach. We used to spend days, with the occasional week with her, just us children. I went fishing with a local man, catching eels and flounders which granny cooked. Cockling with my younger siblings, eaten later, there was a small river into the sea, hours of fun, with food and drink just across the road. I learnt to swim there and remember the mortification years later when my dad swam in his white y fronts.
It’s still there, but very popular now with car parks, a cafe and nearby camping.
I still love the seaside at any time of year.

My first holiday at the seaside was in a rented caravan and I was bitten by fleas presumably from the blankets! We counted 99 bites and then I was stung by a wasp, making 100! Not funny.

Oh yes, yes,yes. I grew up in the most beautiful place in the world (prejudiced ofcourse 😂) with the Arabian Sea all around . Picnics on the beach and moonlight strolls were part of growing up. Life was one long seaside holiday. Idyllic. As it is, I don’t live too far from the seaside now, but definitely not the same.

Camping........with lots of ex WD equipment........we were quite the talking point on many a campsite.

We live in Margate, about 5 minutes walk from the beach and also have a beach hut
We love spending the day at our beach hut and you can’t beat a beach walk when it’s bleak and freezing cold.
I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else

Yes, I had been taken by my parents for a few days at the seaside, having just recovered from Chickenpox. My father recently back from the war, had found that his woolen swimming trunks had been attacked by moths and so he took to the beach in a newly purchased pair of Utility ones.

He set out into the sea and plunged about happily, after a while my mother looked up from our sandcastle making and returned his wave, then returned to the sandcastle, this happened a couple of times and then she realised that he wasn’t waving, but beckoning her. Rather annoyed as she wasn’t wearing a swimsuit, she went to the waters edge and he obviously told her why he had called her. She ran back up the beach and rushed to her handbag and pulled out a manicure set and took it back to the waters edge, together with a towel.

By this time various families on the beach were making a good attempt to look as if they were not engrossed in all this.

Suffice it to say that the Utility trunks had not proved a good buy - they shrank, and anxious to avoid an arrest for indecency, he swam, using one arm and clutching them with the other, to the point where she had waded in, took the scissors swam further out again, and cut them, sitting down under the water.

I was fascinated to see my mother turn walk a few paces and with the deftness of a test cricketer, hurled the towel at my father which he fortunately caught. They both returned up the beach, and with typical British reserve, the other families averted their gaze.

OK in fairness I didn’t remember all the finer points of this story, but it was related so many times over the years, that I could piece it all together. I don’t suppose I thought much about it then, but we had many a laugh recalling it. It rained for the rest of the week, and my father became rather annoyed when my mother regularly burst out laughing.

Lovely memories of going in freezing cold seas in Marske, Saltburn, Scarborough etc then hot tomato soup and egg sandwiches while wrapped in a big towel.

My parents moved south from North Yorkshire before I was born (never forgave them!) so every summer we would travel back and visit all our relatives.

Oh yes winkle picking, rock pooling, then going home with hands so cold and stupidly running a tap with warm water to try and warm them up again ………oooh the pain.

Fantastic memories of growing up at the seaside. Could see the sea from my bedroom window. Was out swimming and jumping creeks all summer from about the age of 8. Prior to that Mum would meet us from school and take us for a paddle.
It was the perfect childhood.

Thank you Salti. I remember now. It was a lovely park. We preferred the north beach for some reason.

Yes wonderful memories of staying with my maternal grandparents when they moved house to the Sussex coast. My grandfather loved the sea and I have memories of walking along with him hand and in hand, him telling me all about sea creatures and marine life generally, what to look for in rock pools. I remember my mother's observation that when couples retire to the coast like my grandparents, what happens is the husband dies first and wife is left as a widow and perhaps it's best to stay in the community they established themselves in. Some years later, after my father retired, hey ho! parents up sticks from Surrey where they'd lived for years, down to the Sussex coast, positively Lemming like, where the inevitable happened, father died first!

I have a theory though, we're drawn to the sea it's primeval urge, to return to the very place, where millions of years ago life supposedly crawled out of.

I love the sea, even when it's rough it's still mesmerising.

I was raised in Torquay so the sea was very much part of our lives. And when my children were young we rushed to our favourite beach, with a picnic, at every opportunity.
Even now, when I'm a few miles inland, I regularly drive to the nearest seaside and walk along the beach or sea-front.

I lived for many years on the East Coast and loved it. The locals always preferred the beach out of season when there were no holiday makers.
Does anyone else remember the Cliff College Evangelists who used to preach and have hymn singing sessions on the sea front.

Yes.
Really lovely memories.
My daughter has fallen in love with the same beach and takes her closest friends there. 🧡

I'm currently working towards a whole family holiday there next year.
Difficult with so many if us though.

BTW we are great sand architects in this family! I can spend whole days in complex construction! 🪣🌤

Grandmabatty, the park in Scarborough is peasholme park. I loved it as a child but it is on the North Bay and the South bay was a nicer beach.
I remember my dad towing a tiny caravan down to Cornwall when we were small. Very old fashioned, gas lights and no loo or shower. I learned to surf (laying down) in Newquay well before I ever learned to swim. At that time nobody that I knew went abroad.

As a small child I was convinced that the" Seaside" was a sperate place/town.
The fact I lived by the Seaside didn't dawn on me at all.

I was born in a South Wales mining village , twice a year two
trips to Barry Island, one with the Capel one with the Miners
Club. Train to Barry,straight to the beach. Lunch children were
taken to a large hall for their dinner,no adults.
Back to beach, donkey ride, Punch and Judy show, nearing time for the train home always went to the fair .

First holiday by the sea was caravan in beautiful New Quay, Cardigan Bay.

Twiceasnice I too lived in S Wales and we had many a holiday in Porthcawl. My uncle had a caravan at Trecco Bay. Now the caravans are neat and regimented there. When I was a child they were set haphazardly amongst the sand dunes. On our last evening we went to the shows at Coney Island, and had candy floss. Great memories .

We had seaside holidays on the Kent coast. I remember going home envying those who lived there. Aged thirty eight, I moved there and lived happily ever after

Of course.
How many other real almost princesses do we get to meet on here?

Thanks MissAdventure

(Assume I was the intended recipient?)