Seaside holidays

Oh yes, seaside holidays! Wonderful. I am sure we have all got lovely memories of them from when we were small.

We tended to go to Devon and Cornwall most years - never abroad. I remember we once went to Wales but it rained so much that was the one and only time!

We always stayed in hotels as my mum quite rightly thought that self catering holidays in, say, a cottage were no holiday for the woman.

I can clearly remember going down to breakfast in the hotel and smelling the delicious aroma of bacon frying.

If it was fine we would go to the beach for a while for a swim but dad always wanted to explore the area so then we would dry off, get dressed and bundle in the car and off we'd go.

If it was a wet day I remember cinema trips. In those days there seemed to be so many films suitable for all ages - even war films.

Then late afternoon it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. This was always very exciting for me as I had been bought some new dresses for the evening and I was allowed to stay up late!

Wonderful memories.

I'm lucky in living 5 minutes from the seaside/prom. All downhill, it's the coming back that takes your breath away a bit, but there's nowhere nicer on a fine day than walking along the prom eating a Mr Whippy.

EllanVannin

I’m so envious!

I love the seaside, just come back from a few days by the sea, sitting on the beach with my book, people watching, ice creams, lazy strolls, absolute heaven!

I’m convinced that people who live by the seaside are happier

We didn’t have many summer holidays, but one I do remember was when we went with friends of my parents to a holiday camp. I think it was Deal, but so long ago now. Neither family had a car, so it meant a train journey, and were than picked up from the station by a sort of bus! When we arrived, it was dire. Broken door handle on our chalet, grimy windows, cobwebs galore, and so mum and ‘auntie’ spent the rest of the day cleaning their respective holiday homes. I think we, the children, must have enjoyed our stay, but the first impression has stayed with me for more than 60 years.
I can also remember being taken in a sidecar, on mum and dad’s tandem, to a camp site at Runnymede. We knew how to live it up in them days

Oh please don't talk about the sea! I was brought up near the sea and miss it with every fibre of my being! Current caring situation means I cannot get to the sea - boo hoo!

As well as living near the sea in Essex, we used to go to my grandmother's in Lympstone, a tiny fishing village in Devon, for a lot of each summer. I remember hanging off the harbour wall with a string and a pin and trying to catch fish - never caught anything, but that did not spoil the fun.

We used to go to Exmouth from there and I remember the donkey rides, the punch and judy, and, above all else, the activities that were organised on the beach by Eagle, Girl and Robin magazines - anyone else remember that? And I remember looking out for Lobby Ludd in hopes of winning money!

And all up the cliff gardens when night fell, there were little tableaux with little gnomes and fairies in them and all lit up - and the bushes were alive with coloured lights. We thought it was magical.

In my school holidays I used to work for Rossi's, the Italian ice cream company, on the seafront at Southend-on-Sea - I used to sell ice cream, do the washing up (in some filthy water as I recall), and try and avoid the Italian bottom-pinching!

I also worked in a local children's home in the holiday before going to uni, and my strongest happy recollection of that is taking about 10 children to the beach on my own - I was 16!!!!

With our own family we spent many happy times at the St Davids festival - concerts in the evenings and beach/walking during the day. I hope so much that one day it might be possible to do this again.

Get me to the sea!!!!!

I’m convinced that people who live by the seaside are happier

Sorry to spoil that thought Sara65 but I live about 2 minutes from the sea and I'm the most miserable cow you could ever meet.

There is something about walking on the beach that always makes me cry.

I tell you what gilly, perhaps we should swap homes!!

I don't think I could live inland now Lucky there is something about the sea that draws you and it would be very hard to leave. Of course there are drawbacks like the hoards of visitors in the summer who clog the roads up around me, rather than pay to use a carpark, the fog horn keeping you awake some nights and the fog itself, the rats with wings (seagulls) swooping down and pinching ice creams, having to pretend that the fairground is closed today when the DGC can hear the music from my back garden (its hard to get away with that one now they're older).

I often walk on the beach when I am in need of a good cry, it clears mind a bit.

My happiest memories of the seaside were visiting Great Yarmouth as a child. Seeing whoever was doing the summer season, the fairground and the winter gardens.

Gillybob

Maybe you’d be even more miserable if you lived somewhere else!

Just a thought!

Probably Sara65

We used to have holidays in a B and B, sharing a toilet with goodness knows how many families!

Best seaside memories are Sunday school outings, my cousin Carol, and being in the sea all day, and going to the fair in the evening

Oh, Happy Days

I love being by the sea. In Malaga we are.
Not here in Urmston.
I think there is something very calming about watching the waves roll in ... (cue ‘sitting on the dock of the bay’!) and being able to walk along the sand or the promenade.

Years ago my sister and I used to be in Blackpool for the summer holidays as our mum was born there and had family there. We used to get so excited.

Fish and chips. Candy floss. Punch & Judy shows on the beach. Donkey rides where the sand would rub between our little legs and the donkey, jogging along with bells on the bridle. The smell of the salty air and the sound of seagulls. Clumps of seaweed which gave us the willies for some reason! Sand dunes to hide in and roll down. Egg butties which always tasted gritty. Metal buckets and metal spades with a long wooden handle.

Oh and that ‘laughing’ clown (?) in a glass case near the Tower (I think) that spooked us. And the green and cream trams. Knickerbocker glories in a beach cafe as a treat.

This was the late 1950’s and very early 60’s. Magical.
?

We didn't holiday every year as we were quite hard up but I remember building sandcastles and eating lovely ice cream cornets - Mr Whippy was the favourite.
Oh Luckygirl for around eight years my late hubby and I lived in Exmouth. There's something about living in a seaside town which is very special.
But gillybob I understand about the sea being sad. I can't put my finger on it but watching the tide rolling in and out has a melancholy quality to it. I can't fathom why. Does it remind us of the passage of time - "Time and tide wait for no man" and we mortals are powerless against it? I will always have a soft spot for Exmouth.

I think you are right lovebeige . When I walk on the beach alone I especially remember my grandad who loved the beach (the same beach I walk along) and all the other people I have loved and those I have lost. It does remind me of the passage of time as though we are almost powerless in the grand scheme of things.

Lovebeigecardigans

Love Exmouth! Take our grandchildren quite often, I doubt it’s changed very much, swans in the boating lake, swing boats, perfect day out!

A good sniff of the sea air sets you up for the day.

There is something sentimental about standing looking at the sea. I've felt it myself at times. Lost childhood maybe.

Gillybob

I think it’s all to do with nostalgia, it’s like you remembering your grandad. Remembering Sunday school outings reminds me of my lovely cousin, now dead, in our matching swimsuits from the co-op, it is sad in a way, but happy memories

There's a wonderful book by RC Sheriff called 'A Fortnight in September'. It's an old one written in the 30s I think but it's such a lovely read about a family holiday to the seaside. It's not a thriller but absolutely captivating.

I grew up by the sea and my mum took us to the beach on many summer afternoons. We didn't have many holidays but sometimes we used to go on a day trip to a sandy beach which was a novelty to us, building sandcastles and the like. I loved those paper flags you could get to stick in the top!

My mum swore blind that a brisk walk on the sea front a winter's day also cured all ills and I remember being taken to see the sea ice in the winter of '63.

I find the sea mesmerising, I can stand for ages just watching it. I live inland now but have plenty of rivers around.

I think it's the quality of the light at the seaside that makes it so fabulous.

Tourists are a pain in towns too, gilly. We lived and worked in the town walls in Shrewsbury and sometimes it was difficult to manoeuvre 2 children, a dog and a pushchair out of the front door through the (mostly American) tourists.

Jane10 I've read that and also loved it. Amazing how good a book can be when nothing really happens!

I don’t know what it is Kitty, but I could watch it for hours, it’s good for the soul

I absolutely love the sea, and the seaside. I couldn’t imagine a holiday inland. My one regret in life is that we have not lived by the sea. I would have loved my children being able to swim, sail and paddle after school. Having said all this - we have owned a holiday home on a beach all our lives (don’t think we’re rich as we inherited it) but it just wasn’t possible to live there because of work/family etc. We actually live amongst a forest, which to some people would be bliss, but I just hanker after the sea all the time.

Seaside holidays or breaks , the coach trips I go on are mainly to seaside resorts for either a few days or longer.
Areas which I like have been places like Eastbourne, Bournemouth , IOW.
And as a kid it was Great Yarmouth or along that coastline close by.
Apart from Ice Creams its Fish & Chips , but not the commercial ones, but also like prawns used to see stallholders selling them , I walked from Shanklin to Sandown on the promenade got some prawns in a dish, consumed got to Sandown and got another one.
Mick