Years ago, back when we wore flared trousers, Scrobs and co went away on a week's holiday in Dawlish Warren, Devon.
Finances were pretty damn bleak back then, and I'd just posted a form to the bank which stated how we were going to pay off our enormous overdraft, just the day we'd driven off. It was a crap time, but hey, we were a family going away for a week in a caravan by the sea, and life was good wasn't it.
The first night in the huge caravan was interrupted by the sounds from the pub at the top of the cliff, and this song was played every half hour..
Now, as an old Scrobs, I can listen to this song without fear or trepidation, but back then (1982), times were tough...
16 comments:
I went on a similar holiday around that time, and strangely that song doesn't ring a bell. The track that always takes me back to that holiday was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHwVBirqD2s
That and Soda Stream Cherryade. Which wasn't a song...but you get my drift...
Like Wellington's mum, that song also means nothing to me! Must be from a different era. Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, The Shadows and Elvis was more like the music of the time.
My first holiday sans parents was in the early 60s with 3 other mates to a holiday camp at Camber Sands near Dymchurch. Not exactly the height of luxury - but comfortable enough for our simple needs and not as expensive as Butlin's either! We just all piled into my old jalopy and took off for a week at the seaside. Freedom of the open road! We were all about 18 at the time as I recall. We were just normal (fairly unworldly too at the time) working class kids enjoying simple pleasures really.
I learned a very important lesson on that trip. We stopped at a country pub for lunch and just inside the door on the wall was a machine to test reaction time. The back drop was a traffic light. You put a sixpenny bit in the slot and it appeared behind the glass and was caught by a ledge. When the light changed a bell went off and the ledge fell away allowing the coin to drop. You had a fraction of a second to push a button to stop the coin falling and if you caught it above a red line you got it back. We all did this a few times before lunch and invariably got our money back. After a ploughman's and a swift half of lager we tried it again - and lost every time. Made a noticeable dent in our ice cream money! That little drinkypoo had slowed our reaction time sufficiently to cost us - and made us painfully aware at a very young age that drinking and driving can seriously damage one's health. I wonder if it is still there?
Oh crikey, Dawlish, the pits of the earth. Where the mainline train goes across the beach. Scenic. There's nothing there but tacky gift shops. I didn't like it.
Said pip
I remember the song well.
1982 was my 17th year. I've known days of financial stress with a young family in tow too. In fact those days are never really far away with kids.
We lived in a caravan there for two months when we first moved down.
Yup, Wellington's Mum, drove down overnight in a blue car with only one headlight...
As for blue, there was another flavour - Intergalactic Space Juice!
We know Camber very well, Reevers, as Mrs S's folks had a pub in Rye!
Was it Pontins you stayed at? It was all very new then! There are several pubs along the road of course, and I'd have to go in everyone to ask I suppose...
We loved it all, Pips, the sea was gorgeous for swimming, except for the seaweed here and there, but yes, I do recall the trains making a racket...
You almost certainly know the scene in the pic, Elecs!
There was also a boat from Starcross, which took you up-river to a pub on an island of sorts!
A quick Gurgle finds me outside the pub here...
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Dawlish+Warren&hl=en&ll=50.59626,-3.445941&spn=0.004597,0.011362&sll=52.8382,-2.327815&sspn=8.963685,23.269043&oq=dawlish+warren&hnear=Dawlish+Warren,+Devon,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=50.596482,-3.445861&panoid=cRXuDPa_05yfHuPpQjDHhg&cbp=12,168.5,,0,0
The pub link is for the one which played Big Log all the time, not the island one..;0(
No Scrobs,nothing as exotic (or expensive) as that. I think it was probably called Camber Sands Holiday Camp or something equally exciting. As you say, all this sort of thing was very new back then and the normal hols by the sea was indeed a week in a caravan. We used to stay at the site in Dymchurch just along from the little rail station for 5 quid a week. Still got some pics lying around somewhere too. We did branch out one year and stayed 5 nights in a nice B&B above the cliffs at Ventnor. Boy, we really knew how to push the boat out in them there days!!
Don't ask me the name of the pub. You'll have to go hunting for the one with the reaction game on the wall just in side the front door. But I warn you, if you have a swift half at each one, it will cost you to play it!!
PS: I agree with Pip. I know/knew Dawlish quite well as the first Mrs rvi came from Kingsteignton and I doubt it has changed much over the years.
Camber's full of small camps now, Reevers, back then (in my early years) there were still lots of railway carriages being used as holiday homes, and I think there are still some...
The sandy beach there is just great for children, and Rye Golf Club is the snootiest in Sussex, but my dad enjoyed being a member!
I remember the financial stress of my parents. Gosh it must be horrible with the yappers yapping and the kitty empty. I remember demanding bloody trainers because my friend had ones that I wanted. Thank goodness I was told to sod off. I'm not having kids until I'm well off, which means probably never. "LOL".
Anyway, they don't make cars like that anymore do they? Thank goodness.
Holidays are good. They should be compulsory.
As for 1982; Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing; Phil Collins - You Can't Hurry Love; Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen; Fat Larry's Band - Zoom; Foreigner - Waiting For A Girl Like You; Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel & The Furious Five - The Message; Junior - Mama Used To Say; Haircut 100 - Fantastic Day; Daryl Hall & John Oates - I Can't Go For That & Maneater; Imagination - Just An Illusion; The Jam - Town Called Malice; Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n' Roll; The J. Geils Band - Centrefold; Rocker's Revenge - Walking On Sunshine; Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots; The Stranglers - Golden Brown; Tears For Fears - Mad World; Tight Fit - The Lion Sleeps Tonight (the chorus in the shower); Wham! - Young Guns and of course I was still Funkin' for Jamaica with Tom Browne, Using it up and Wearing it out with Odyssy plus zipping up my Boots and Going Back to My Roots whilst rowing on the floor round about then (still do but only weddings and bar mitzvahs). Can you feel it? The Jacksons did and I remember dancing to Champaign and How 'Bout Us (we knew all the words. That I was All Out Of Love (Air Supply)in 1980 didn't matter as by 1982 it was Raining Men and of course I let myself get ABSOLUTELY SOAKING WET!
*sigh* those were the days :-)
remembered Pip
That holiday was great fun, Blues! It only really took a good sandy beach, a few gulps of home-made wine, and fish and chips to give us all a good break!
Although the day before we left, some feral jerk broke off my car aerial...
Pips, have you been watching TOTP perchance..;0)
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