Maggie Knows wrote:I didn't like Sherbet either, but you couldn't get away from that song. John Paul Young (not the Led Zep bass player, I mean the Aussie singer) was another annoying heartthrob.
I was a big fan of early AC/DC (being from WA, Bon Scott was a local hero of ours). I also liked Skyhooks...
Just remembered, the guy from Led Zep was John Paul Jones
It was my sixth birthday during that summer so I don't remember much really. The only definite memory I have is that we had a plague of ladybirds, in Bridlington, that summer. Every time you put a foot down there was a horrible crunch of crushed ladybirds (literally, beetle-crushers).
I was 14 in the summer of 1976. I remember the school going on strike because of our working conditions and the local paper coming to report on the story.
In the first week of the summer holidays I went on my 3rd or 4th Youth Hostel trip – a whole week on the Isle of Wight with my friend Mandy.
The only YHA now left on I of W is Totland, but back in 1976 there were Simple Hostels, no VAT, which meant that the YHA had taken over somewhere like a school with camp-beds in the classrooms and a none-too-organised student in charge. There were kitchen areas (gas burners) where we could prepare weird things like Vesta Curry.
We did all the planning ourselves, from booking the hostels, writing to the tourist board for leaflets and deciding where we wanted to go. No adult checked we had got it right.
So with accommodation booked and paid for, ruc-sacs on our backs, OS map in hand, we caught the train to Lymington. The intention had been to hike from one hostel to another, but we agreed that with the heat we would buy a week Rover bus ticket. (Actually I still feel annoyed with my friend, who generally had double the budget that I had. The bus conductor actually asked her “is that an adult or child ticket?” and she answered “adult”. I usually tried to be honest, but you can see from my budget below that an extra £2.50 in my pocket would have been very handy…)
As ever, parents had put some money in the National Savings bank account and we knew that every village would have a post-office where we could get our cash out as needed. I’m looking at that book now and can see that I set out with £14.50 in the account. Presumably we also had cash for the train ticket, ferry fare and bus ticket.
Cash withdrawals
27 July Yarmouth £3.50
28 July Totland Bay £2.25
29 July Whitwell £1.50
30 July Sandown £1.25
31 July Ryde £4.25
… leaving me with £1.75
There were biting ladybirds but I was most thrilled to visit Carisbrooke Castle and see the well powered by donkey – as described in my favourite book Moonfleet.
The post office bank book is one of my most treasured possessions of my childhood and how it was at the age of 14 I could go away for a week, phoning home just once to say we were ok. One of the saddest of signs is in modern YHA kitchens which say something along the lines of no-one under the age of 16 may use these facilities without adult supervision
I went there with my school a few times in the summer as we usually went to the indoor pool in Southport as there wasn't one locally in Crosby, where our school was, at the time. That was in the late 50s or early 60s.
"You can't change history as that won't change the future"
I went to that pool every summer from about 1984 to 1988, with my sister and two friends (they were also sisters, of a similar age to us). Happy memories!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Great memories, Pete, Boatbuilder and Anita.
I've lived just outside Southport for the last 15 years or so, so spend a lot of time there. It's different now, of course, but I have memories of it from my younger days as well and always nice to see the old videos of how it used to be in its heyday.
