Cars, Caravan Holidays And British Seaside Trips

Set off at four in the morning to beat the traffic, arrive in the rain, and have a genuinely good week anyway.

Here's the whole holiday.

The car

• No seatbelts in the back, which only became compulsory for children in 1989 and for adult rear passengers in 1991.
• Three across the back seat, and the one in the middle on the hump.
• A rear window shelf with a nodding dog and a box of tissues.
• Ford Cortina, Austin Allegro, Vauxhall Cavalier, Ford Escort, Morris Marina, Austin Metro.
• No air conditioning. A window wound down by hand, and a sunroof if you were doing well.
• The AA or RAC relay box, and a badge on the grille.
• A road atlas, and the argument about the junction you'd just missed.
• Breaking down, and standing on a verge for two hours.

The journey

• Leaving at four in the morning 'to beat the traffic', and sitting in traffic anyway.
• Are we nearly there yet, asked within eleven minutes.
• I-spy, pub cricket, the number plate game and counting yellow cars.
• Travel sickness, a carrier bag, and a stop on a lay-by.
• Sandwiches made at home and eaten in a car park because service stations cost a fortune.
• Little Chef, and the Olympic Breakfast as a rare treat.
• Dad refusing to stop. Mum insisting. A stop happening forty minutes later than needed.

Where you stayed

• A static caravan on a site, with a gas smell, a fold-out bed and everything slightly damp.
• A touring caravan, and reversing it onto a pitch in front of an audience.
• The boarding house, and the landlady's rules: out by ten, back by six, no food in the rooms.
• Half board, with a set menu and a fixed sitting time.
• Butlin's, Pontins and Haven, with the redcoats, the ballroom and the knobbly knees competition.
• A tent, in the rain, with a groundsheet that didn't quite work.
• The site shop, the launderette and the club house with a bingo caller.

The seaside

• Blackpool, Skegness, Scarborough, Rhyl, Great Yarmouth, Weston-super-Mare, Margate, Torquay.
• A windbreak, hammered in with a shoe, as essential equipment rather than an accessory.
• The pier, the 2p machines, the grabber, and the amusements with the change kiosk.
• A donkey ride, a boating lake, crazy golf and a paddling pool with a concrete bottom.
• Fish and chips eaten out of the paper, with a wooden fork, in the wind.
• Rock with the name through it, a kiss-me-quick hat and a stick of candyfloss.
• The Blackpool Illuminations, driven along slowly in a queue of cars, every single year.
• Rain, and the arcade, and a good time regardless.

What changed

• Cheap package flights made Spain affordable, and British resorts lost a generation from the seventies onwards.
• Seatbelt law, child seats and car safety changed the journey entirely and saved a great many lives.
• Motorway expansion cut journey times, which took some of the ordeal and some of the adventure out at once.
• Caravan sites and holiday parks are still enormous business - the format didn't die, it just modernised.
• British seaside towns are having a partial revival, and the piers and arcades are mostly still there.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• The windbreak was essential equipment, not an accessory.
• Leaving at four to beat the traffic never worked.
• It rained, and it was a good week anyway.

Where to shop next

• Sweets that disappeared
• School dinners we all remember
• Toys of the 80s and 90s
• Christmas presents every child got
• Computers and consoles we grew up with
• Phones before mobiles
• Dial-up, MSN and MySpace
• Cassette tapes and taping the charts
• Video shops and late fees
• The Argos catalogue and the wishbook
• School stuff we all had
• Things kids today will never understand
• Out until the streetlights came on
• What childhood cost then vs now
• Sweets quiz
• Guess the year quiz
• Growing up in the 80s and 90s
• Free feel good tools
• Shop cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Birthday cards for kids
• Funny Father's Day cards
• Mother's Day gifts
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

When did rear seatbelts become compulsory in the UK?

Wearing rear seatbelts became compulsory for children in 1989 and for adults in 1991, where belts were fitted. Before that, three children loose across the back seat was completely normal.

Why did British families holiday at the seaside?

Because it was affordable and reachable by car or train, and because holiday entitlement was concentrated in traditional weeks. Cheap package flights from the seventies onwards changed that.

What was a boarding house holiday like?

Half board with a fixed sitting time, and rules about when you could be in the building. Out after breakfast and back for the evening meal was a normal arrangement.

Do you sell holiday memorabilia?

No - we make greeting cards, prints and pin badges. This page is purely for the memory of it.