General Chat

Hello Memory Lane Lisa, Yes, childhood holidays were always spent at my aunt & uncle's house in Fleetwood, while they were away on holiday in North Wales (1950s). My father was a vicar, so that's all we could afford, but we always thoroughly enjoyed it. Down to the beach, rides on the donkeys, paddling and fishing nets, watching the trawlers and the Isle of Man steamers coming and going. On one day in the week or fortnight, we made the statutory trip into Blackpool, which was busy and exciting, but my sister and I didn't like as much as Fleetwood. Tower aquarium, trams on the front, lots of ice cream etc. First "holiday" without my parents in foreign parts was when I was 18 in the army cadets at boarding school, when I was one of five lucky lads from my school to join a naval cadet cruise to Gibraltar on HMS Belfast. Some 800 cadets and 800 regular naval crew, of the cadets only 10 were army like me, 2 marines and 1 RAF cadet who was sea sick all the way out, poor lad! Very impressive, imperial, nostalgic etc. Had an admiral on board, flying the white ensign plus his flag, escorted by a squadron of minesweepers. The evening before we arrived in Gib, we were all gathered together on the quarter deck to be lectured by the ship's doctor on the perils of Gib women and clap! lol! Steaming up the straits of Gibraltar the next morning was an impressive affair. Royal Marine band playing on the quarter deck, 14 gun salute from the saluting cannons on the Rock, response salute from the battle cruiser (Belfast, you will recall, helped to sink the Scharnhorst off the North Cape at Christmas 1943). Standing to attention in our best uniform on our mess decks, being watched by loads of tourists on two big cruise liners in the port. While we were there for a week, we had the chance in small groups to visit all the local sights. Also day trips across the strait to Spanish Morocco at Ceuta, and up the Spanish coast to Malaga. This was rather scary, the height of the Franco regime and shortly before he closed the border altogether. Border guards wearing German style uniforms, high peaked caps and jackboots, toting submachine guns while they checked our passports. The sequel to this was only two years ago when we were visiting the Rock with friends. We met a taxi driver who remembered the visit of the Belfast in 1963, apparently it was a heavy political event at the time, and was one of the most important events in Gib history in the '60s! Philip

We went to Cumbria (I think!) and stayed in a caravan when I was about 12. We were playing cricket with some folks from the next caravan with our little cross jack russel/yorkie chasing the ball. My little sister went in to bat. The lad from nextdoor bowled at her with the dog chasing. Our Jayne took a swing at the ball and smacked the dog straight between the eyes. The dog keeled over onto her back with her legs kicking then went very still. Everyone thought she was dead. Our Jayne was screaming and wailing. Mum picked the dog up and took her inside where she evetually came round and made a complete recovery - and lived for about another 10 years! I'm laughing my hat off while writing this but it was a bit scary at the time! lol Jeanette

i can remember going to spain when i was twelve with my parents and being terrified of flying. my dad forcefullyhad to drag me on the plane screaming but once on there and was actually there it was fine.the only downside i can remember was we went to this barbeque with all the other guest and guest from different hotel and it was up in the mountains.we had a coach to take us up there and as you can guess there was a lot of sangria to drink .unfortunetly the coach driver had been drinking so the tourists were in uproar over this.but the man that was with him gueranteed that he wasn't drunk.so we carried on.lets just say it was a white knuckle ride on the way down and i am here to tell the tale.xxx