When I heard from a fellow (but much more prolific) blogger that Butlins were running a competition for bloggers to write about their favourite childhood holiday, my first instinct was to think I was excluded. Sadly I was never lucky enough to go on a Butlins holiday as a child, much as I wanted to. My childhood ran mostly through the late seventies and early eighties, so firmly within Hi-de-Hi! territory, and I longed to go to a holiday park which I was sure would be just like that!
Luckily, despite the lack of a Butlins holiday as I was growing up, I can still take part in this promotion - Butlins are looking for memories of childhood holidays in general, not just at their parks. Yay!!
I didn't go abroad until I was 11 - we weren't massively well off, so most of our holidays were either in caravans, or occasionally a small hotel or B&B. I'd have to say that without a doubt my favourite holiday was to Whitby on the east coast. We stayed in a caravan owned by relatives - it was a relatively swanky static caravan, with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. Definitely a step up from some of the miniscule 1970s touring caravans we'd stayed in before!
It was on quite a large site, with a shop, and a big clubhouse where they had a nightly disco! Whoop!! Little ten year old me was in her element in the disco. There was a weekly youth club disco at home, so I knew all the moves and all the songs, and I proudly strutted my stuff on the dance floor night after night. To their credit, mum and dad never tried to stop me, or to tell me how ridiculous I must have looked (I can't dance now, and doubt I was any better then!)
I'm sure the days of that holiday were fun-filled and sunny - as most holidays are looking back through rose tinted spectacles, but in truth, all I really remember is getting glammed up every night and heading out to the disco! I was too young to wear make-up, but I had several pairs of deeley boppers, and a couple of slinky jumpsuits made by my mum, and I wasn't afraid to use them!
I had no brothers or sisters, so I headed onto the dance floor on my own that first night, but it's so easy to make friends when you're ten, that before long there was a gang (or mob!) of us tearing round the club - making brief pit-stops at our parent's tables to eat some crisps or drink some coke before heading back out to show off in front of our new friends.
That holiday was definitely a sign of things to come - I spent most of my twenties on holidays abroad where the days were spent lying on a beach somewhere in Greece recovering from the night before, and the holiday was all about the nightlife. I have far more fond memories of those long ago caravan holidays with mum and dad, making new friends, then the more expensive but much less memorable ones in Greece!
Competition sponsored by Butlins Holiday Parks, helping your family make memories
