Shows and Holidays

Mum and Dad were always very keen on music and quite often we would go to see some of the famous stars of the time. I particularly remember going to the London Palladium to see onny Ray and Kay Starr though I must have seem many more than that. I also have memories of pantomimes - although nothing specific remains. We did make an annual trip to Bertram Mills Circus at Olympia every Xmas and also to the Royal Tournament at Earls Court.

The one trip that looms large in my memory is a family outing to see the film of South Pacific. My main memory of the film is of Mum pulling a flask out of her bag so that we could all have a cup of tea in the interval. Typical Mum - she couldn't go very long without her tea!

Other films I remember are Frank Sinatra in The Tender Trap at the Streatham Odeon, and a war film called Albert RN. We went to see this at the Astoria, Tooting. The prisoners of war made a dummy to hide that fact that one man wasn't coming back from the wash house. I found the dummy so frightening that Dad had to bring me out of the film. I have never seen the end of it!

One of the rages of the time when I was young was the range of I-Spy books produced by the News Chronicle newspaper. These had themes - I-Spy in The Country, I-Spy Birds etc. The idea was that you tried to see every item in the book. Once the book was complete, you would send it in to 'Big Chief I-Spy' and you would get a feather for your headdress. Needless to say, it was extremely difficult to see everything in a book.

I had one really good try. I had got on quite will with I-Spy in The Street and I-Spy In The Road but my target was I-Spy London. Dad took a day's holiday and off we went. We started at The Tower of London and finished at the western end of Hyde Park. Many miles of walking and searching to find all of the things mentioned in the book. Dad suffered from what was then called 'Water on the knee' and was in severe difficulty by the time that we had finished. This was the only I-Spy book that I ever completed and so was my sole feather.

Holidays

Our annual holiday too one of two forms.

1. A guest house

2. Butlins - and on one occasion another - holiday camp

Guest Houses

I don't remember too many of these. The ones I do remember were in Southsea, just close to Portsmouth and in Ryde in the Isle of Wight. The second one was more memorable because of the ferry to get there and our trip to the Needles where there was a beach that had multi-coloured sands so you bought a glass mini-lighthouse and self filled it with coloured layers of sand. Apart from that these holidays were unmemorable except that I remember that we had to get out of the guest house by a certain time and not come back until dinner time. Great on a good day but awful in the rain.

Butlins

Now Dad used to talk about our holidays at both Butlins Clacton and Skegness but I have no memories of Skegness. I guess I was too young at that time. Butlins had taken over some old army camps and turned them into holiday spots. The great things about Butlins were that you didn't really have to leave the camp to have a good time, and that all your meals were provided as was a maid service in the chalets. This was a great luxury. The camps set you up in 'houses' so that there was always good competitions. These were organized not just for the children but there were many for adults as well. In those days, such simple pleasures were very appreciated, especially following the hardships of the war. If you were a regular, you always were put in the same 'house' so you had years of loyalty to look back on. We were always in 'Kent' house. One great thing was that the fun fair was always part of the deal so there was nothing to pay to go on any rides. On one memorable holiday we travelled to Clacton, not on our usual coach (or chara - short for charabanc), but in a taxi. Dad hired Cosy Cars - a well know Streaham based taxi firm, to take us and collect us. Such luxury. If I remember rightly, we travelled in a Ford Consol and felt very grand.

The big excitement came when I was 15. Dad announced that were were to go to Butlins at Mosney. Mosney is in the Irish Republic. This meant a trip over the Irish Sea. Guess how we were to get there - we flew!!!! For a boy who dreamed of aircraft 24 hours a day, this was too good to be true. We flew from Heathrow to Dublin - and back - with Aer Lingus, the Irish airlines and we flew both ways in Vickers Viscount airliners. I have some photos taken from the plane to prove it. I met up with a boy called Geoff who introduced me to photography and it was there that I acquired my first camera - a Kodak Brownie. I remember a trip to Dublin for the day. I saw my first beggar on O'Connell Street.

The Other Holiday Camp

Now, quite why we went to one that was not Butlins, I don't know but would guess that we were on a budget that year. The camp was in Hayling

1. The camp quality was not up to Butlins.

2. I was climbing on the chairs around the dance hall when on chair collapsed and I cut the inside of my mouth quite badly.

3. I got confirmation of my Dad's claim to know the pre-war dance bands personally. The band for the dance hall was led by Nat Gonella who was a well known 30's to 60's jazz trumpeter. The first afternoon, Dad took us in the the hall as they were rehearsing. I was all set up for some acute embarrassment. Dad walked up to Nat Gonella and as we got near, Nat turned around and said 'Charlie - how are you. I haven't seen you for years!'. My dad was right!

Special Days

I have said before how  work out how Dad afforded some of the things that we did. This one is definitely one of these. On three occasions that I can remember, whilst we were on holiday, Dad took me to the local airfield for a joy ride.. This is never a cheap activity so I am pretty amazed that we could do it. I remember a couple of trips in Austers but the real memory is of a trip from Portsmouth Airport in a De Havilland Dragon Rapide. This isn't the aircraft (of course) but this is what a Dragon Rapide looks like: