| Ye Olde Summer Holidays! |
| JohnH | Remember those long, hot summer school holidays we used to have back in the 70's! Time seemed to stand still, was it still light at 10:30pm, did the hols only last 6 weeks? How did you all pass the time?
If we weren't having arguments with the neighbours (lots of that in our neighbourhood) we'd be playing football or cricket in the street (even if there is a large playing field at the bottom of the road), whose turn is it to ask the horrible man at number x for our ball back please, or we would be cutting out great sods of earth and grass to dam-up Wade Brook. Many hours in Worden Park of course. Don't remember doing any homework!
Looking back at those years we had a lot of freedom. Would you feel safe today giving your own kids the same freedom - no chance!
JohnH |
| Martin | quote:
Don't remember doing any homework!
JohnH
Homework? Not a chance, I am definitely a holiday person. I used to hate going back to school after the long break. There is talk now of changing school terms, I'm not sure how that will affect the summer hols though.
Martin
In The Pink |
| LDunlop76 | quote:
I used to hate going back to school after the long break.
Martin
In The Pink
Oh yes - that awful sense of.... not exactly dread, but definitely a sinking feeling in the stomach, walking to the station the first day of the autumn term.
At my secondary school we got 8 weeks in the summer. I don't remember it raining much - is that selective memory? Unluckily I was doing O-levels during the long hot summer of 75 and it was no fun revising in the heat! 76 was even hotter, but I only had junior VIth exams and cold enjoy the weather more.
Even at primary school, we felt quite safe spending hours at the playing field or along the canal bank. As you rightly say, John, you couldn't feel safe letting the under-11's (and even older) have the sort of freedom to go off playing by the canal all day nowadays. I remember the scary thrill of coming down the big slide at the local field - these days it would have a cage built round the top to stop you falling off and rubber matting or bark chips at the base - in the 60's and 70's it was concrete and if you fell, it was a 10 minute dash home for your mum to get out the Dettol!!
|
| julie | When it was the school hols,and if your mum and dad took you out for days here and there,why did it always seem to take half a day to get there,and back and a couple of hours on the beach or at the fair?
And you was only going to blackpool or southport!.
I know the roads do make it quicker now but even to southport on the back road out of leyland,as that road always been there? its only twenty mins and your nearly in southport.
Going to whales for the day ment getting up at the crack of dawn!
I remember going out four of us kids in the back with grannie and the dog,mum and dad in the frount no wounder one of us was always sick.
i do recall a car with a bench seat in the frount (no seatbelt) which was much better.
john do you remember that?
julie
|
| LDunlop76 | quote:
I remember going out four of us kids in the back with grannie and the dog,mum and dad in the frount no wounder one of us was always sick.
We used to squeeze 9 of us into an Austin Cambridge! Mum, Dad, youngest brother and baby sister in the front; my grandparents, another two brothers and me in the back! We drove all the way to Cornwall and back like that one year! Wouldn't be allowed these days! No seat belts either - frightening really!
|
| JohnH | quote:
.... i do recall a car with a bench seat in the frount (no seatbelt) which was much better.
john do you remember that?
Hi Julie. Don't really remember the front bench seat - was it the old Ford Zepher (ask dad)! The trip to Southport wasn't too bad - I used to cycle as far as Banks at 0500 in the morning to start work at 0600 while working at the tomato nursery - at least it was flat  .
It is strange when you think about the lack of seatbelts in cars back then (even when they were fitted - still not used). Was there less accidents! you never heard about any.
..... are we there yet dad? 
JohnH |
| anacortesdamp | Only 8 weeks? My American-raised kids and grandkids would think they were really deprived. The summer break starts in early June (depends how many snow days they had during the winter) and doesn't end until the Labor Day weekend, which is the first Monday in September. Some years, that's almost a 13-week break.
The down-side is that it takes the best part of the first month to re-cap what they did at the end of the previous year, as it's been such a long time since they had to think!
A lot of people have summer cabins at the beach or in the mountains. It used to be the tradition for Mom and the kids go for several weeks and Dad to come out from home at weekends. With the two wage-earner families, I guess it's different these days. More often the kids go to the "non-custodial" divorced parent for part of the summer. I'm glad we didn't have that problem!
Frank Damp
Anacortes, WA, USA
|
| LDunlop76 | quote:
..... are we there yet dad?
JohnH
Oh, not that refrain! My middle brother once asked that when we were just approaching Knutsford (en route for the south coast) - bearing in mind we lived in Altrincham, Knutsford was "nobbut a cockstride" (as my Grandad used to say) from home and my Dad was ready to throttle my bro! Happy days!
I had terrible travel sickness and I remember one year having to use my seaside bucket to throw up into in the car. I was horrified when Dad pulled up outside a police station to empty it on the grass verge - at the tender age of 6 I thought we might be put in prison for that! 
Does anyone remember those little flags you used to be able to buy to decorate your sand castles? I used to love those!
|
| noel | quote:
i do recall a car with a bench seat in the frount (no seatbelt) which was much better.
john do you remember that?
julie
I remember those bench seats Julie, my parents had an Austin Cowley a big green car. It had a column change gear box.
Noel.
|