| Child hood holidays. 19:47 - Feb 13 with 7704 views | qpr_1968 |
where did you go as a kid.
every year, 60,s and early 70;s valley farm, clacton caravan site, except for 1973.....
that was butlins in clacton.
1968 was leysdown on the isle of sheppey, then it sounded posh, but its essex....
worse beach ever, quick sand more like.
always 2 weeks of sunshine though.
first time abroad was portugal, but 33 and a couple of kids then...
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| Child hood holidays. on 18:12 - Feb 15 with 1485 views | R_from_afar |
I played with the Subbuteo cricket regularly, for years, but yes, you are right. I mostly played against myself, which was fine, but some aspects were silly really. You could bowl at light speed and also hit the ball into orbit with the sort of power hitting which would make Chris Gayle look like the other Chris, Chris Tavare.
I actually created a dice based cricket game of my own based on Owzat. By having, as I recall, three dice for batting (the first one with 0, 0, 0, 1, next dice, and owzat on it) I could play fairly realistic matches, with maiden overs, 50s, and the very occasional century. I still have it somewhere and used proper scorebooks to record what was going on.
I also used to play my own - cough - "test matches" against the wall in the garden, using a tennis ball and a size 1 bat. The bat was barely wider than the ball and did wonders for my hand-eye coordination.
Best of all when it came to cricket at home was when I doctored a rubber ball to make it swing, using Bernoulli's principle (and a piece of carpet tape on one side). My brother and I got my dad to come out and bat and after a few deliveries with a tennis ball, I quietly switched to our secret weapon. I was like Bob Massey, swinging it round corners. Pretty mean of me 
Reminds me of when I was working in Solihull and four of us used to play indoor tennis. We weren't great and our kit was pretty rubbish, especially the balls, which were old and soft. I was serving one day and found a brand new, top notch ball hidden behind a cricket net. After a couple of serves with our normal balls, I surreptitiously deployed "The Goldeneye". I managed to conjure up a legal, barnstormer of a serve straight off. It was like an Exocet and the receiver had to dive out of the way LOL. | |
| "Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1." |
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| Child hood holidays. on 19:23 - Feb 15 with 1410 views | stowmarketrange |
My dad had a pair of metal oblong shaped dice that had all the runs and an owzat on one dice and the ways you could get out,and no ball and not out on the other.
I think Tetley’s bitter gave sets away in the 90’s as gifts if you had so many pints.As my dad used to drink gallons of the stuff,he got a few of them.I only have 1 set left though,but it came in a little metal tin,and I’m sure you could get one from eBay.
I just found it and it was Webster’s Yorkshire bitter that gave them away. [Post edited 15 Feb 2021 20:00]
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| Child hood holidays. on 19:44 - Feb 15 with 1370 views | flynnbo |
No, I didn't have that. However, Subbuteo's "By Space Craft to the Moon" game (the rare ones are the non sporting ones and other sports such as angling) go for silly money. The former with box and instructions went for £900 at auction last year. | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 21:03 - Feb 15 with 1287 views | SydneyRs |
Ireland. A lot. It was usually freezing.
Also Butlins and Pontins type holidays which as kids were brilliant.
First proper overseas holiday was Morocco at 17 once I'd started working with many more since. | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 21:12 - Feb 15 with 1279 views | MrSheen |
Owzat was great. I adored cricket too (to the annoyance of my Dad, he used to come into the room just to turn the TV off), but I was completely useless but also good at arithmetic, so I was the scorer my whole time at school. I used to practice with whole Owzat test matches in an old score book. | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 21:33 - Feb 15 with 1265 views | Konk |
All our holidays were in the UK, but we got about a bit. A combination of caravans, holiday camps and staying with a family friend up in North Berwick. Lots of Yarmouth, Sheringham, Hayling Island, Isle of Wight, Lyme Regis, Swanage, and the Gower. The Gower was probably the best spot, North Berwick was great because we tied it in with a Hibs game, and my only real memories of Yarmouth are spending a lot of time sheltering from the rain in arcades, with about 30p to my name, and my Dad taking us to banger racing for some strange reason.
Lots of time spent wearing cagoules on the beach playing cricket or football, eating sandwiches with sand in them, and making best-friends-for-life that you spoke with once on the phone after you got home. I love a walk now, but as a kid, parking-up in the rain, and walking round in a big wet circle for three hours before getting back to the car, seemed like an especially pointless and cruel way to spend a day.
Setting off on holiday on the Saturday morning, my brothers and I would pile in the back of the car, there would be a massive row about who was sitting where, my Dad would let us choose the music, and by the time we'd travelled about 20 miles, my Dad would be threatening to boot one/all of us out on the hard shoulder and leave us there. About 30% of the time, I was car sick too. Every year without fail, my Dad would load the cases on a roof rack he'd borrowed from Bob at No. 21, and cover them in bin bags. These would get shredded as soon as you got above 30mph, and make an insanely loud flappy noise for the rest of the journey. A noise that you couldn't block out, because you had to have the windows open for a bit of aircon. Good times.
The first time I went abroad was when I was 12 and I went on holiday with a mate and his family to Benalmadena in Spain. I got sunstroke and chased across a park by an Alsatian.
After doing quite a bit of international travel with my son between the ages of 1-3, we're now decided that we're happy stopping at home for a bit. For the past couple of years we've hired the same house in New Quay, West Wales with friends. Stunning, empty beaches nearby, so lots of football and cricket on the beach. Booked the same house this year, and I can see us carrying on for at least another 2-3 years without feeling the need to go elsewhere. We're also lucky enough to have mates with a home they built between Padstow and Newquay, so get down there 4-5 times a year with them, and it's lovely seeing how much fun the kids have pi ssing about in rock pools or in the waves. That's all you need as a kid, I reckon. [Post edited 15 Feb 2021 22:00]
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| Fulham FC: It's the taking part that counts |
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| Child hood holidays. on 22:12 - Feb 15 with 1224 views | SydneyRs |
I have to say that trips to Ireland became a lot more fun once you could have a drink in the pub (from about 16).
Lock ins were commonplace in small town bars that doubled up as small grocery stores. I remember once it got to about 2am and we'd had enough and were ready to go home. The landlord was disappointed/offended that we were leaving so early!
Your description of church there is spot on. The priest in my Mum's home town sounded like one of those fast talking auctioneers and raced through Mass in record time. [Post edited 15 Feb 2021 22:14]
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| Child hood holidays. on 23:18 - Feb 15 with 1196 views | itsbiga |
A3 up to the Elephant then A2 all the way down to Canterbury then A28 up to Margate.
or
A23 to Croydon, cut across to the A21 then all the way down to Hastings. | |
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| Child hood holidays. on 23:38 - Feb 15 with 1183 views | OregonQPR |
Camber Sands, Cornwall, Brixham, Isle of Sheppey, Lowestoft.
Malta, summer and Christmas when we lost 4-0 at Wolves and it was on BBC World Service 2nd half commentary. | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 02:06 - Feb 16 with 1132 views | OregonQPR |
This needs to be dismissed purely on the basis the poster went to see Hibs play. When visiting Edinburgh the only football should be to see Hearts, Hearts glorious Hearts😀
Just kidding those all, Hibs aside, sound like great memories👠| | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 02:07 - Feb 16 with 1130 views | OregonQPR |
This needs to be dismissed purely on the basis the poster went to see Hibs play. When visiting Edinburgh the only football should be to see Hearts, Hearts glorious Hearts😀
Just kidding those all, Hibs aside, sound like great memories👠| | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 09:08 - Feb 16 with 1034 views | CroydonCaptJack |
It was Casdon Soccer. We played it all the time and when I wished I could play it with my lads I found one on ebay. It was just as I had remembered it.
What a great thread this is with so many lovely stories.
I was born in Norfolk so my early holidays were in Hunstanton which is a proper old fashioned seaside town. We moved here when I was about 7 and I remember feeling so lucky we went to Majorca that year. I think my old man must have thought he lived in the big smoke now and needed to keep up with the Joneses!. I bought this huge bag of sugared almonds that I apparently carried around for the whole week. Most other years we went to Cornwall, Devon or Wales. I remember going to a holiday camp in the Isle of Sheppey one year and they ended up buying a caravan in Pagham so we went there a lot after that. A few years after I would go there for weekends with a few mates. It was ideal as there were four pubs within walking distance. I think three of the pubs had the names of animals from memory. | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 10:07 - Feb 16 with 990 views | Konk |
My Dad’s a Hibby, hence the Hibs games! GGTTH! | |
| Fulham FC: It's the taking part that counts |
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| Child hood holidays. on 10:20 - Feb 16 with 978 views | Maggsinho |
My very first memory is going on holiday, we got the Motorail sleeper servie from Olympia to Scotland and I can remember seeing the car loaded on the train. My second earliest memory is throwing up on that train in the middle of the night.
We went all over, Scotland, Northumberland, Devon, Wales but my main memory is how we went to the same cottage in a Suffolk village every May half term and would have those little mini selection packs of cereal you used to get for breakfast. Lovely memories. | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 11:46 - Feb 16 with 920 views | doogi10 |
st marys bay dymchurch kent with the rugby club notting hill
bit rough but great | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 12:38 - Feb 16 with 881 views | R_from_afar |
I had Striker, which I think my dad got rid of when I wasn't paying attention, he hated clutter. I bought a second hand set a few years ago and we still play it at family gatherings (when COVID restrictions allow such things).
I also had this, I liked it but my mates absolutely loved it and used to flock to my house to play it:
https://www.oldfootballgames.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=124105
Back on the holiday theme, one thing we used to do was to create a ball roll from sand, so, a conical mound of sand with a helter-skelter style groove connected to a long, straight, gently sloping run-off. The idea was to let a tennis ball roll down it and the aim was to see how far you could get it to roll under its own steam. We spent hours building those things and my dad - God bless him - loved to help. I think it was his engineering background. | |
| "Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1." |
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| Child hood holidays. on 19:47 - Feb 16 with 784 views | Rebalhoop |
Had some great holidays in Guernsey as a kid,cliff walks,great beaches,rock pools,the German Underground hospital ....loved it | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 20:50 - Feb 16 with 738 views | hantssi |
I went there in 81, before a proper foreign holiday, my 1st holiday with a girlfriend.
Beautiful place, never been back since but would really love to.
By the way we split up straight after we got back, 2 weeks was obviously too much for her!! | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 21:05 - Feb 16 with 716 views | Boston |
Y'up another Guernsey up vote. Think it was the summer of love..or 1978. | |
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| Child hood holidays. on 10:37 - Feb 17 with 651 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
How the did you all afford regular trips to Guernsey and Jersey as kids? It’s costs a fortune! | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 10:44 - Feb 17 with 645 views | MrSheen |
Cigarette smuggling? | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 11:29 - Feb 17 with 622 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Nazi collaborators? | |
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| Child hood holidays. on 11:54 - Feb 17 with 601 views | Rebalhoop |
Back street B&B in St Peter Port,me and my brother sharing a bed,in the same room as mum and dad,Dad had to work 2/3 jobs to pay for it...wasn’t easy for him,but he did it.
When we ate out it was in a cafe,Mr. Tea Pot was the favourite,or we took sandwiches to the beach.Go over on the Sealink Ferry,took hours,not the most comfortable either. | | | |
| Child hood holidays. on 12:03 - Feb 17 with 586 views | MrSheen |
Schweinhund!
An aunt of mine went to Jersey and thought it was the greatest place on earth because the fags were so cheap. | | | |
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