Where did you go on vacations as a child?

For many years our family holidays were spent at Prestatyn in North Wales. This was covenient for two reasons. Prestatyn was, and is, a seaside town with good beaches but more importantly it was where Nana lived so we could stay there at no cost and my mother could spend time with her mother. The family would set off by car some time shortly after the end of the school year in July and we would spend at least four weeks there.

My Dad would go back to the family business for some of the time but would come at the weekend and usually for a two week stretch as well. Usually we would spend the whole day at the beach and would rent a chalet for much of the time. The Chalets at Y Frith beach were one room lock ups that had a gas ring, a small sink, a fold down table that lay snug against the wall but would unfold when you needed it and also a small lift storage box on the back wall that ran between the side wall and the gas ring hob and the sink.

That box served as seat at the table and also storage for various things like beach balls and cricket gear. There were also at least two canvas beach chairs included. You brought everything else that you needed with you. In later years I would take my brother down to the beach at perhaps ten in the morning and Mum and Dad would arrive just before lunch time with the lunch and perhaps supper items.

It was a good time if the weather co-operated and even if the weather wasn't too good or turned ugly then you still had the Chalet to retreat to. Over the years we made a lot of holiday friends who would be at the Chalets at the same time as we were. Later on when my Mum and Dad had more money to spend then we started to go further afield and had two or three years in Newquay in Cornwall. Perhaps that in part was because Nana and Uncle Dick were aging and finding it harder to cope with the annual summer invasion, though we still went to Prestatyn for Easter and Whit public holidays.