Holiday nostalgia

School’s out, people are on their holidays and jetting off to sunnier climes. These days, thanks to cheap flights and the digital age, you can be somewhere sunny in just a few hours and share holiday memories in an instant. In a moment of holiday nostalgia, I thought I’d share some old Polaroid pictures from a family holiday to Butlins. This was before cheap flights and the digital age existed !

Back in the 70s

In my childhood, in the 1970s,  long before Easyjet and Facebook had even been thought about, just going to Butlins for a summer holiday was an event. It was a two and a half hour trip on the ferry from Larne to Scotland and then a drive to Ayr. The weather was unpredictable and there was no such thing as an ensuite bathroom. We had to use communal showers and toilets that were a good hike from our room. The room was basic to say the least.

Dancing to Abba

It doesn’t sound very glamorous, because it wasn’t. The whole place had the look and feel of an army camp. It might even have been one ! And yet, strangely enough, it’s one of my happiest holiday memories. Maybe it’s just holiday nostalgia kicking in. But I fondly remember dancing to Abba and Boney M at the evening disco and thinking it was brilliant to stay up as late as 9pm.  I remember my parents and family enjoying a drink in the exotically named  Copacabana bar with its river and fake crocodiles. Everyone was smiling, dressed in flares and having a good time. A time when brown was the new black !

Me and my family at the Copacobana Bar, Butlins, Ayr

All of the girls sitting at the fountain, Butlins, Ayr

Happy memories

I still remember having to queue for my dinner, like at the school canteen, and sitting down to eat with hundreds of other people at long refectory tables covered in 70s style oilcloths . Choosing postcards to send home to friends was a key ‘thing to do’ on holiday. And  I ran around the place,  not a care in the world,  with my Coca Cola necklace and my Purdey style haircut.  I was a huge fan of Joanna Lumley in the Avengers at the time. We  took time out to visit Loch Lomond and Robert Burns’ cottage, taking pictures with a Polaroid camera.

A family picture outside Burns Cottage

Polaroid pictures

Of course, back then there was no instant sharing on Facebook. There were no filtered pictures on Instagram and no deleting of pictures we didn’t like. You took a picture and hoped it would turn out ok. Then later, it was a sit down at the kitchen table to have another look at what the pictures revealed. You were keen to see what pictures had ‘turned out’ well, who looked silly and who had posed for the camera ! Then off they went into the family album, in actual hard copy, not left to linger in digital form on your phone.

I’m so glad some of those Polaroid pictures have survived. It’s made me remember what holidays are all about – having fun, spending time with loved ones, having new experiences and living in the moment.

 Thanks for stopping by,

Paula

Useful Links

Other travel related posts to enjoy:-

The blues of Menorca

Reflecting on Summer