Distant memories

‘Sometimes I cannot take this place, Sometimes it’s my life I can’t taste’ Korn – Freak on a leash

Every afternoon I get the train home and invariably I get the one that goes along the coast. It offers scenic (?) views of the north east coastline and the north sea and passes loads of caravan parks. Seeing these, empty and desolate at the moment, reminds me of family holidays in my teens.

Growing up in a single parent family with a mother who couldn’t drive, meant that we relied on other family members for our holidays. When my dad lived in Saudi, me & my brother would always spend at least a week in Blackburn with my dad and grandparents. That would include at least a day in Blackpool. But every so often we got to go away with my mum and my gran. This meant four of us & all our luggage crammed into a mini and driving from Birmingham to Scotland. We always went to the same area (where my mum’s dad was born & where my mum et al, now live) and we always stayed in a caravan. No matter how much we fought during the year, our holiday was the one time that me & my brother became not only best friends, but also dependent on the other for any form of fun. We could be quite close when circumstances dictated it.

When David joined the family, it meant we didn’t have to go away with my gran anymore. This was infinitely less stressful for my mum (who struggled to hold her tongue after 48 hours with her mum) and easier, not least cos David had a bigger car! But we still stayed in caravans around the country. Even when I finished my A-levels and went away with friends to celebrate, we stayed in the country and stayed in a caravan at Newquay.

I’m sure that these holidays would be incomprehensible to most teenagers today, who won’t go anywhere that doesn’t have a decent shopping centre and a variety of fast food outlets. Nowadays, most teenagers will head off to Ibiza to celebrate the end of their a-levels, and would probably laugh in disbelief at the fact that one group of 6 girls had a fantastic time staying in a shabby caravan 5 miles outside Newquay town centre.

And that is the difference between now and then. I’m glad I grew up when I did, as opposed to now, in the computer game age. And I’m also glad I grew up in a single parent family, with little money, because it taught me the value of it.

Until there is a next time…

xx