I am currently looking back over some old photos to set them up on DVD's for the family records..... can you remember the times when the family went to the seaside, on a blazing hot day, and your Dad/Grandad turned out on the beach in full suit, collar and tie, 22in. wide trouser bottoms, complete with turn-ups, and best polished shoes on.

The ladies were in their Sunday best too.

Have you got photos at home like that?

Are you saving them for posterity?

My parents / granparents usually went on holiday to Scarborough - hence lack of blazing hot days.

Me = Train to Skegness for a weekend in a chalet with my Grandmother. Later her sister bought a bungalow in mablethorpe so we started going there.

They was some of the best activities I did looking back as a kid. Lets face it the six week holidays nowadays usually include an increase in kids plodded at a computer/tv screen all day or anti-social behaviour!

Originally posted by shoeshine
I am currently looking back over some old photos to set them up on DVD's for the family records..... can you remember the times when the family went to the seaside, on a blazing hot day, and your Dad/Grandad turned out on the beach in full suit, collar and tie, 22in. wide trouser bottoms, complete with turn-ups, and best polished shoes on.


The thing is, in those photos, everyone always looked really happy. I don't think people look happy like that any more.

Bridlington was where we went for family holidays, and I do remember my grandad wearing his suit to the beach. In fact I think my grandad wore a suit every day of his life. Certainly he never wore jeans.

When I was a kid, through the 1970s up to 1987 we went for a week in Scarborough, north bay, every single year for about 15 years for our main holiday. In the same hotel and at the end of August. In all that time it rained for only a handful of times, it was always sunny and we used to get better sun tans than our neighbours who went to spain. I used to spend hours digging massive holes in the beach and swimming in the sea every day.

However I wouldn't dream of doing that now as an adult. It's far cheaper and more interesting to visit other countries in europe.

But the weather was always hot, I can remember only 1 holiday where the weather was lousy, Blackpool 1971.
Rhyle had its good and bad in 1972 but every other year specially in the 60s were great.
These days everyone goes abroad but do you think that Spain is becoming a little tired like the British holiday.
I would go to Spain for a weekend only as its to comercialised now and its a country I have yet to visit.
The eastern Med is great for sun and relaxation unless you go further afield.

Best holiday for me in this country was Torquay in 1970 and 1973.

Cycleracer, your observations re the eastern Med are spot on.

We have holidayed on several Greek Islands, but my favourite is Kos. Kos town is beautiful, with a mix of Ancient architecture, and great cafe/restaurant facilities, Flowering trees line the streets, and of coarse the beach/port area where the ferries arrive/depart to and from from Turkey.

Health precludes us from air travel these days, but I will always remember the island of Kos. Lindos, on Rhodes is lovely too.

My favourite in Britain is Bridlington..easy to reach, lovely spot on the North Bay, Scarbro' and Filey within easy reach.

Originally posted by Cycleracer
I would go to Spain for a weekend only as its to comercialised now and its a country I have yet to visit.

There are many parts of spain which are very traditional and not full of english tourists. Spend a weekend in madrid and you would be unlucky if you met another english person. It's a busy city, very interesting and full of life.

Originally posted by muddycoffee
There are many parts of spain which are very traditional and not full of english tourists. Spend a weekend in madrid and you would be unlucky if you met another english person. It's a busy city, very interesting and full of life. Its no secret that my hobbie is cycling and plan to see the Tour of Spain wich finishes in Madrid.
I would like to go and mix a weekend in with that.

May go this year.

we used to go to blackpool every year, till i was 17
me and my sister spent most of our time in either the funhouse, or the arcades

i remember the year with millions of ladybirds, think that was blackpool, might not be

Mel..don't know if the year fits your age at the time, but I believe the Ladybird swarms were in the long, hot summer of 1976 I think

Originally posted by shoeshine
Mel..don't know if the year fits your age at the time, but I believe the Ladybird swarms were in the long, hot summer of 1976 I think I remember the greenfly swarm in 1979 I was in Skegness with my soon to be wife.

1976 - the year mum and dad splashed out on a hotel holiday for a week right in the middle of the heatwave. I remember the car breaking down in a traffic jam in Malton and steam pouring out of the bonnet. My dad was stomping around red faced with fury as he tried to find somewhere that would give him a pop bottle full of water. We sat in the back seat whinging because our legs were sticking to the vinyl seats in the heat, which only got him more furious. :D

What about when you had a daytrip and it would rain? We used to take my grandmother and she wouldnt get out of the car if it was raining when we got to wherever we were going (usually a thrilling place like Knott End or New Brighton). So you'd sit there whinging until you got told off, then sit eating your meat paste sandwiches, glaring at the rain and sulking. Then when you got older you were allowed to have a strop and get out of the car and run onto the beach and get soaked, and then have an "I told you so" when you got back dripping with rain and muck.

In 1976 I was an age which allowed me not to have to go away with my parents anymore....:clap: Great....So they went to Malta.
I was gutted.:mad:

Originally posted by shoeshine
Mel..don't know if the year fits your age at the time, but I believe the Ladybird swarms were in the long, hot summer of 1976 I think

well id have been 7, so couldve been

I have a superb black and white picture of me on the promenade at Blackpool with the tower in the background. I am about 5 years old walking hand in hand with my beautiful mother and my almost equally lovely Aunt Florrie, both of them dressed to the nines in the very stylish clothes of the 1930s. Of the hundreds of pictures that randomly carry out screen saver duties on my PC, this one is my favorite.

Originally posted by buck
I have a superb black and white picture of me on the promenade at Blackpool with the tower in the background. I am about 5 years old walking hand in hand with my beautiful mother and my almost equally lovely Aunt Florrie, both of them dressed to the nines in the very stylish clothes of the 1930s. Of the hundreds of pictures that randomly carry out screen saver duties on my PC, this one is my favorite. I also had an Aunt Florrie, :suspect: it was'nt the same one was it.
I only went to Blackpool once in 1971 and never returned until 2005.

I remember going to Skegness, in about 1951/2, with my younger brother for a week with Grandama who owned a Guest House there. I was about 9/10 yrs old
A relative drove us to Skeggy.
Mum and Dad stayed at home.

My Grandad worked at the Amusement Park, so we got free complimentary tickets on the rides.

Grandma would dish out spending money each day to both of us.

Within 2 days I had got very homesick, and I had a bit of a secret I would not disclose to Grandma.

On the 3rd. day, My Grandma arranged for me to get home , sharing a taxi with her brother (my Great Uncle) who had been staying in the Guest House himself. We returned to Rotherham forthwith.

My younger brother stayed put, and told me when he got back that he'd had a great time.

I turned up at home...out of the blue, to an amazed mother.
I told her I had been homesick, and the subject went no further.

Some years later I talked with Mum about that holiday, and told her the secret reason for my early return......I did not like taking spending money from Grandma for the whole week, and I hated having no money of my own and hated feeling dependent.

She gently explained that she and Dad had given my Grandma ample funds to cover all our needs for the whole week, including spending money for each day!

I was gutted.

Originally posted by shoeshine
Mel..don't know if the year fits your age at the time, but I believe the Ladybird swarms were in the long, hot summer of 1976 I think

correct 1976 east coast

I thought the ladybird swarm was in 1979,i was just 17 and was having my 1st holiday without my mum,a friend and i went to great yarmouth,she had just passed her driving test so we went in the car which only added to my mothers unease about us going.I remember setting off back home and the windscreen being covered in the greenfly, the eppidemic which was around the same time,or so i thought,we went straight into the back of a car,we were only in slow moving traffic on the sea front but i banged my head on the windscreen which dug my glasses into my nose and so i had a nice bloody nose all the way home.

Originally posted by Cycleracer
In 1976 I was an age which allowed me not to have to go away with my parents anymore....:clap: Great....So they went to Malta.
I was gutted.:mad:

You didnt miss much weatherwise. We were cruising in the Med all that summer and the weather was absolutly crap. We came back to southampton every 3 weeks for bunkers and it was only when when we were halfway across Biscay that the weather picked up. Everyone in England was suntanned and we were all pale and wan! The weather certainly got mixed up that year :hihi: