What do the Summer Holidays mean for you?

[Philipnet]

In years gone by, I used to love the Summer Holidays.

There would be weeks spent beside the seaside or 'traipsing' through gardens/old houses, visiting relatives, having my Nan come and visit us for a week and just generally enjoying the time I had off from school




In later years, it's been a case of working through the summer as way to avoid everyone else taking to the holiday destinations and the town/city centres. I've enjoyed the quicker commutes (as no one is doing the school run), although some councils and authorities did decide to commence road and rail improvements during this time, which added to my commute





So what about you?
What do the Summer Holidays mean for you?

[Nyder]

Summer holidays in my tender yoof meant spending the morning at my Auntie's (drawing, playing with toy animals and putting them on the right place on the map), playing her piano and scoffing jelly tots. Then in the afternoon it was over to my Nan's to enjoy her glorious scrambled eggs on toast, watch Crown Court and have a game of cards. In terms of holidays - Tenby was a regular haunt. I'd love to go back there at some point.

You've got me all nostalgic now Phil!

[Si Hunt]

It used to be a glorious spell lastingly seemingly a thousand years of sheer joy. Now it's a slightly less packed train and switching the air con up to max in the office.

Si.

[Dirk Gently]

It used to be a spell of relaxation when school could be forgotten about & we used to go out & play football in the field behind my house.
A time to go down to Dorset to visit my Mum's family & have 2 weeks on the beach.

Now it just seems to be a time when the kids round here make a load of noise because there's no school to keep them away & to get out the fans.

[Andrew Curnow]

As a kid we used to live in Carlisle, with (almost) all the family still down in Cornwall - so sort of by default, our Summer holidays tended to be mainly centred around a couple of weeks down with relatives. Usually that was a couple of days at Dad's parents, then 10 miles further down the road to Auntie Mar's for the remainder of the time. Auntie Mar's kids (ie, mine & my bruv's cousins, keep up at the back there) were a couple of years younger than us, so we were all of a similarish age - and Mum's parents lived*** literally next door to Auntie Mar, so it was (at least at this distance, to my rose-tinted memory) a lovely sunny time of playing, beaching (not that I'm a bit beach fan really), or going off shopping, along with big family meals in the evening. After we moved to Devon in 1982 we did the same sort of thing for a few years, but obviously being that bit closer, and I suppose that little bit older, it wasn't quite as exciting.

[Andrew Curnow]

***I feel obliged to add that after a while in Carlisle, Mum's parents also moved from Cornwall - they were in Ledbury***** for six years, although they kept their bungalow next door to Auntie Mar for (a) a bit of income as a holiday let when they weren't there; (b) somewhere to come on Summer holidays, which they of course usually timed to coincide with us; and (c) later, a place to come back to retire to.

So after the move to Ledbury, there was some variety to the above holiday regime, in that sometimes me & bruv would spend a few days/a week sans Mum & Dad at Gran & Grandpa's. What independence!!


*****Allegedly, Grandpa was offered Ledbury as somewhere to move to, and he accepted it based on the fact that when he pinpointed it on the map, it was as near as dammit halfway between us in Carlisle, and family back at St Keverne in Cornwall!!

[Jeff]

Andrew, every time you start putting **** and ***** in yours posts, my first thought is that you have been cursing. (actually "Cussin' Curnow" has a pretty good ring to it for a nickname )

Summer break now, to me, means weeks of taking the kids to Tee-ball and softball games. Sometimes putting a pool up. Often going on some kind of vacation, usually just one day to a theme park or something, though we took a proper vacation to Disney World this year which I purposely made a bit similar to a vacation my family went on as a kid, which I still remember as the best vacation of my childhood.