# Family holidays



## liaconn (15 Aug 2009)

There's a lovely article in today's Irish Times about a typical family holiday in Ireland 20-30 years ago. The author mentioned Campbell's meatballs. I remember tins of these used to be a staple of our holidays years ago. The taste of them with rice just meant 'holiday'. My mother used to pack a big box of groceries to take with us and we would spend the whole day driving to our destination -'how long more' 'are we nearly there yet?' playing 'count the cow' with a tennis racket sticking into the back of our neck or a pile of library books sliding off the back window and pushing into our spine. Wouldn't change those memories for the world. What are other posters' memories of family holidays from years ago?


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## Elphaba (15 Aug 2009)

sunburnt, legs stuck to the leather seats in the back of our blue cortina, making faces at passers by, ice cream, buckets and spades, adventures, staying in a country farmhouse and falling headfirst into a pile of cowdung, being chased by cows, scared witless by the banshee who lived down the end of a bohreen, the smell of salt and vinegry chips, chairoplanes, swinging boats, seeing a new sea for the first time, making new friends and dreading going home.


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## Vanilla (15 Aug 2009)

I'm possibly too old, but when we were children there was no such thing as going on holidays. Farmers children! On the rare occasion we would go to the seaside for the day though. What I remember most was sandy ham sandwiches, tins of club orange and the time my mother lost the keys to the car on the beach and we were going to be late back for milking the cows. There was murder, but a great day out was had by all!


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## Ancutza (15 Aug 2009)

Catching crabs off a bridge in Wexford with limpets tied to bailing-twine tied to a stick.  Soggy burgers from the 4 Laterns (does it still exist) in Donegal town (I think) and bailing-out the awning on the caravan after a heavy storm.  The best apple tart I've ever tasted with lashings of cream in a little place near Roundstone.  A glass of beer with my Dad, at the age of 16, in Butlins in Weston-Super-Mare.  He swore blind I was 18!


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## Sue Ellen (16 Aug 2009)

Vanilla said:


> I'm possibly too old, but when we were children there was no such thing as going on holidays. Farmers children! On the rare occasion we would go to the seaside for the day though. What I remember most was sandy ham sandwiches, tins of club orange and the time my mother lost the keys to the car on the beach and we were going to be late back for milking the cows. There was murder, but a great day out was had by all!



You forgot the most important one of all  sitting with the towel around you possibly freezing cold because it was getting late and the Tayto made with new potatoes were the best thing ever because you were probably starving from running around all day.


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## liaconn (16 Aug 2009)

I also remember wandering around wearing flip flops, blue legs in shorts and an anorak. And spending my holiday money on snow storms, gaudy leprechauns and key rings to bring home as presents to long suffering grandparents.


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## Complainer (16 Aug 2009)

Making a two-pound budget last for a week at the slots in  Curracloe.


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## Betsy Og (17 Aug 2009)

a quick juant to the beach (6 miles away) after a hard days footing turf. Lads listening to GAA matches on small radios on the beach of a Sunday afternoon.


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## Celtwytch (17 Aug 2009)

Staying in a caravan in Wicklow, and being terrified of bats because my brother told me they get tangled in your hair and you have to have it all cut off (I have always had long hair).

Family picnics on the beach, complete with little gas stove so we could boil the kettle for tea.

Waking up in a little cottage in Achill, and seeing sheep right outside the window (a novelty for a child who grew up in the suburbs of Dublin).


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## bren1916 (17 Aug 2009)

Being packed off down to my cousins in the middle of Carlow somewhere....roasting hot for 2 weeks....'Zoom' by Fat Larry was a hit and Big Ears & Di got married....Jaysis, I thought I'd never get back to civilisation by the sea!!


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## Firefly (17 Aug 2009)

JR ice pops, extra large Mr Freeze and the obligatory stop-off in Bandon for a 99 on the way to Inchydonny - we were cool kids 

Collecting 'Holy Mary' sea shells in Rosscarbery when the tide went out. Junping off the dunes in Inchydonny. The hang-sangegages, the bottle of Coke in the pub with the straw that only came 1/2 inch over the top.


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## danaforever (17 Aug 2009)

6 of us in a small car (plus our dog), 4 kids quashed into the back - most probably squabling, stopping off in Killarney for a mixed grill (holiday treat) and then back on the road to head to Feothanach (outside An Daingean). Over the Connor Pass into Dingle where we would get a 99 and head to our rented home which seemed to be full of moths. Then to the pub for the celi with my sisters and parents and drinking bottles of fanta and eating bags and bags of pub crisps. Then each day, come rain or shine being on the beach with a wind breaker eating ham sambos full of sand. Those were the days alright.


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## Sue Ellen (17 Aug 2009)

Vanilla said:


> What I remember most was sandy ham sandwiches,





danaforever said:


> Then each day, come rain or shine being on the beach with a wind breaker eating ham sambos full of sand.





Firefly said:


> The hang-sangegages



[broken link removed]


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## Celtwytch (28 Aug 2009)

Sue Ellen said:


> [broken link removed]


 
A very good point indeed!

Mind you, in our family, it was egg sambos that were the popular choice.  Despite the fact that I broke out in hives on a regular basis from eating them too often


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## Mpsox (28 Aug 2009)

Farmers son so holidays were a rarity. Sunday evening in Garryvoe in Cork eating ice cream on the way back from a match springs to mind. A few days in Dublin every 2-3 years with the cousins, going to the zoo, the Horse Show and watching wrestling on ITV (deadly).


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## TarfHead (28 Aug 2009)

My mother is from a small town and had 3 of brothers, only one of whom stayed in the town.

One Summer, we and all of our cousins managed to be in town on the same day so we were all herded off to the beach - about 30 minutes drive away. There were way more people than space in the cars, so my Uncle got a trailer and around 15 of us hopped in for the trip out and back.

Health and Safety how are you  !

Happy days

I remember the 180 mile car drive as being interminable and looking forward to crossing the Border to get on the good roads. Now I do the same trip with my own kids and the journey, with better roads and towns bypassed, is measured as about 2 movies on the portable DVD player  !


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## Ancutza (29 Aug 2009)

This is one of the nicest threads I've ever read on AAM.  I'm enjoying every bit of it.  A reflection of times when life was more simple and the pleasures just as great.  When our parents were all struggling thro' the 70s & 80s, when times were tough.  It would be truly lovely for my baby daughter to read something similar in 30 years time, now that we are all struggling again, and for her to really understand that great memories are made of whom you spent the time with and not necessarily the exotic places you visited. 

Whoops! 3rd glass of Merlot and I'm getting all maudlin. Bed time!


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## MandaC (30 Aug 2009)

Yes, it is a lovely thread.  Our family was disfunctional and my Dad never took part in family things. We only ever went on one holiday as kids.  Mum worked a year as a school cleaner to bring myself and sister to Mosney for a week. I was about 9 and my sister was about 7.  Went on the train as we had no car(only for rich people in them days), we stayed in the musty and mouldy chalets with the smell of damp.  There was a siren and you went for your breakfast/lunch/tea or whatever.  First sitting was called Tara and second sitting was called Slane.  We were Slane. One of the week's highlight's was my sister got a huge cooked beetle in her sponge pudding and custard for tea one evening. 

We had no money, as a treat my mam bought a camping gas and fried burgers in buns in the smelly Chalet.  We also loved seeing the swimming pool over Dan Lowry's Bar where you could see all the legs. I won the junior princess and was a celebrity. The compare said I looked like Veronica Lake.  Photographer took pictures of everyone all week and they were in the photographers shop which was beside the Donut shop.

Mam used to have to sit with us through 2 hours of cartoons and a theatre show (I remember the show had a song (I like a donut with jam in the middle) and I can sing every word of it to this day.  In return, we had to go to the Adults talent show with my mam, fat man impersonating Demis Rousis(if that is the spelling).  We thought it was deadly.

We ran out of money on the Wednesday and then my sister found a tenner in the roller skating area.  Fiver was like winning the lotto. Donuts all round in the greasy spoon for the rest of the week. Remember it all like it was yesterday and it was almost 30 years ago.


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## Galwaygirl (30 Aug 2009)

Love this thread! We lived in west Cork and used to travel to Galway to Grandparents farm twice a year, whatever cats and dogs we owned came with us and I remember trying to round them up to go home! 

When we moved to Galway we holidayed in Lucan!I remember trips into Dublin and the joy of getting a small red transistor of my own in the pound shop! Not to mention the freedom of exploring Lucan village!

One year we went to Wexford and Dad won 50 pound on the slop machines, we gathered up all the coins, never thought to get notes instead of coins and lived like kings for the week with the unexpected money!

Years we didn't get away we used to escape on nice Sunday afternoons to the beach in Galway and bring the sandy sandwiches and the transistor!!


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## sam h (31 Aug 2009)

We got to go to Cork every year - with 7 of us in the car.  2 in the front, 4 in the back & me in the middle (on the floor or sitting up on the arm rest).  Bad roads & a trailer generally ment the journey took about 7 to 8 hours (just over 4hrs now, but no trailer).

Key memeories once there:
 - off to the chipper for a single & can while mam & dad had a drink
 - leaving the house and gone all day bar a quick pit stop at home for lunch at about 1 or so
 - white shoulders & red arm...don;t think I know what sun cream was until I was in my 20's
 - thick slices of white bread & loads of butter - then grilled & brought to me in bed in the morning (+ a sausage if I was really lucky)
 - the VEEERRRRRY cold Atlantic Ocean & the terrifiying waves & undercurrant at Allihies Beaches which I won't let my kids near
 - Meeting greats aunts & great unlces, 2nd cousins etc, which I never knew existed

....oh yeag, the odd sandy "hang-sambo"....the sand gave texture (& taste!!!)


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## liaconn (31 Aug 2009)

Dodging dead jelly fish on the beach
Catching shrimps in little nets on bamboo sticks
Eating candyfloss on a windy day and your hair blowing around and sticking to your face
Picnics with warm custard creams and hot tea from a tartan design flask
Newspapers on the back ledge of the car going yellow in the sun
Playing outside with my cousins in the pitch dark until nearly midnight


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## Kine (31 Aug 2009)

Sandcastle cities....man sometimes we had some metres long with literally hundreds of sandcastles! 

Ah remembering how to make a perfect sand castle....it was all in the mix!


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## Graham_07 (31 Aug 2009)

Kine said:


> Ah remembering how to make a perfect sand castle....it was all in the mix!


 
So true. Spent hours when our kids were small on the beach making masterpieces Gaudi would be proud of. This was one of my best efforts


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## Kine (1 Sep 2009)

Graham_07 said:


> So true. Spent hours when our kids were small on the beach making masterpieces Gaudi would be proud of. This was one of my best efforts


 
For approx 0.2 seconds there I was like "How the hell....oh wait..."


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