UK Caravan Holidays in the 80s and 90s

This week we are back in the caravan — remembering UK holidays from the 80s and 90s, from Whitby and New Quay to Skegness and Chapel St Leonards. Prompted by a long-standing listener request, we dig into everything that made a British caravan holiday unforgettable: the marathon car journeys, "who sees the sea first," cramped kitchens, stripy bed sheets, and the unmistakable sound of rain on a caravan roof.

Expect Butlins nostalgia, arcade machine memories, bingo chaos, seaside chips, and the dread of that final countdown before heading home. A properly nostalgic one this week.

In this episode:

• The build-up and the journey down — back roads, roof racks, and no seatbelts in sight
• First impressions walking into the caravan
• Rain on the roof, tiny kitchens, and caravan privacy (or lack of it)
• Clubhouses, bingo, and seaside etiquette
• Arcade machines, 2p pushers, and classic games
• Family telly, chart music, and the drive home
• UK holidays vs going abroad

Transcript

Eighties UK Holidays Set Up

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, and welcome to Who Remembers the UK Nostalgia Podcast? In this week's episode, we are asking who remembers holidaying in the UK during the eighties? A little bit of eight. Yeah, this is a request from ages ago from uh Craig who said, right, you do holidays as a kid in the UK, and I thought, we'll save this for when the holiday season's upon us, and here we are, Liam.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Yeah, I'm I'm going in a caravan soon, so.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah, most of this is gonna be caravan based.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

It comes together, doesn't it? I'm doing this sort of fingers together gesture, you know, like the everything mixed together at the right time.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

So this is like obviously most of our experiences are in caravans. Um I'm sure I imagine most of our listeners know what we're talking about here. Like when you just, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Yeah, most hopefully have stayed in a caravan because that's kind of our focus. But but we are gonna touch on some of the other things. Uh it's not all caravan-based, so wherever you've had your holidays, I'm sure you could have a lot of fun in this episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Yeah, well, I I one of my uh our mates is ex-girlfriends. Um, this is not why they split up, but I remember her going to we had a caravan and and he came to visit us with his girlfriend, and she was like, I've never been in a caravan before. I'm like, What? She goes, No, no, I've never been in one. Yeah, 30s. In your 30s, never been in a caravan. But yeah, so these are the the the sort of um the holida what's the what if I said to you, Liam, give me a holiday from the late 80s, early nineties, what's the first one that sticks in your mind personally?

SPEAKER_02 2:00

So so if you're kind of coming in at that time, late 80s, for me it's it's Whitby. Um, interesting. Old Man Town. A caravan, I think it's called Sea View, uh the park in in Whitby. I think earlier, if you want me to go earlier 80s, we're talking New Key. And I and actually we've just booked to go later on in the year. We're staying in a we've you know, we've moved up in the world now, we're staying in a kind of holiday home very close to the caravan site that we used to say in Perth, just on the edge of New Key. So interesting. Everything comes around and everything comes around in full circle.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

I have never been to New Key or Cornwall um at all. Actually, I'm gonna say on a holiday, but no, not at all. But I think next year we are planning on on doing it. So I'm interested. I'm interested in that. Most well, all of mine were in the north, other than once when we went to Prestat in in Wales. Earl of Preston. Yeah, um but yeah, I I mean I we've spoken about this privately. Butlins for me were massive. I think I went to Butlins at least three years in a row. Butlins were massive as a kid. It's still quite big now.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

It's I don't know if you've sort of been recently, but uh for anyone who they do like more adult weekends and stuff, don't they?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Uh yeah, they do 90s week. We should go. We should fucking host it.

unknown 3:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

If you if you listen to anyone from Butlins, you know get a little bit more. I've emailed us.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

We don't check the emails very often. We don't check emails anywhere near.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Um Butlins were great because it were all on one side.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

On the walk into Skegness from Chub St. Leonard's, well, say recently, last summer. It's all really nice and smart, and like it, I mean, certainly from a distance anyway, whether it's a bit more shabby when you're up close, but it certainly looks the part.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Do you see that guy who sort of went viral on Twitter recently where uh he goes, look at my state of my room. I've been to Butlins and they were like a bit of blood on the floor. Um this is not we're never gonna get on now, are we actually as I'm slagging it off. But there were a bit of blood on the floor, beds had not been made properly, and every comment were like going, what do you expect when you go to Butlins? A lot of snobbery going around. I I I never we stayed in chalets rather than caravans at Butlins. And I I don't remember it like being nasty at all. It were a real once you go into Butlins, it's like this for a kid, it's just an aw a world of entertainment.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yeah, it's it's got like a huge swimming pool, it's got fairground rides, um is it tennis courts? I think there's all sorts of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, yeah, there's all sorts of stuff. Crazy crazy golf, that's always a massive thing when you're actually when you're going away, isn't it? Crazy golf. Do you ever play crazy golf?

SPEAKER_02 4:19

It's probably one of the least crazy sports of all time, yeah. Think about what you're doing, just sort of slowly walking around. Quite a nice, pleasant little place. Crazy golf, who can't?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

But yeah, but it's because there's like windmills and stuff, isn't there? Like you have to put it, oh, you've got to put it through this windmill here or whatever. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Even that trying to create like a sort of drama publicised video for it, like zooming in and out on the wind windmill. Oh, there's a golf ball going. Crazy golf. I never I were never into that to be fair. Are we gonna start with the journey?

The Car Journey And The Build-Up

SPEAKER_01 4:53

So, yeah, we'll just do that. Yeah, yeah, we'll do it. That's a great idea. We've not planned that, but yeah, so we're on you, you're on your call, I am. Could you sleep the night before? Were you that excited about going away? I think I probably would have been that excited, a bit like Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Yeah, I mean, I obviously we uh you know don't know whether whether it's common or not these days, people seem to have more holidays, but we used to have like one holiday a year. So either one week or two weeks, depending on kind of where we were going and with grandparents. But yeah, there was a massive build-up to it. I mean, we used to buy we used to get our travelling clothes for the way down. I remember once it must have been about seven, maybe six, but seven, I think. And we we talked my mummy to getting us these tops from uh maybe Marks and Spencer's, but they were they had like a space pattern on them and a Lego man that you could stick onto your top and then take him off and like move him around and then stick to it.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Oh, that sounds cool to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

It was amazing. I remember like we'd saved it for the journey, we put our Lego man tops on. I mean you had to sit on people's knee in the back, so like no health and safety.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Um yeah, I'm about to say that. There were always someone without a seatbelt on. And I always think I remember my dad having a roof rack as well, and that didn't seem safe.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Well, my granddad had a trailer. Um I think he built it himself, like a huge wooden trailer on the bike. But you I mean, we'll get to it when we get to the beach, but it used to take so much equipment down with him, it was unbelievable. Um, yeah. But yeah, we I mean, the other thing that we used to do on the journey, and I don't I don't know whether people remember this, particularly who had grandparents. So my my granddad kind of the the motorways weren't for him. He'd kind of decided he he knew his routes.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Oh yeah, no, I better, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

So we used to go kind of all the back routes down to Cornwall. Like I think we went sort of down to Stoke, and my dad said once, like he was thinking, What like this is a five and a half, six hour journey, that's bad enough. It's gonna take us about nine, it was about ten or eleven hours. He stopped at one bit, turned his engine off, and just went to sleep for half an hour, and everyone had to just sit in the car with the rating sort of bouncing down on it while he went to sleep for a little bit. Oh, that sounds horrific.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

I always remember like sort of the one of the most exciting things I think when you're in the car is when you first see the side if you've been before, and as a kid, like you don't really understand how long journeys are or where you are or anything, and the only like the first sight of something that you remember, oh, it's that we passed last year. Yeah, do you know what I mean? That's an amazing thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

To be fair, I still listen to this day, but uh kind of who sees the sea first, yeah. I mean, I I I hope my kids don't listen to this because some of it's inappropriate.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Um big time.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

But yeah, I I've just just showing you behind the veil. Some sometimes I've seen the sea, but I don't I don't say I've seen it. Oh, that's gonna be glory.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Uh it sounds like uh maybe I don't know. Are you lying?

SPEAKER_02 7:29

It's like don't worry, I've I've seen it often.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

No, you've I've seen everything. Yeah, I've seen this.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

And I sometimes wonder like whether my granddad did the same, but and I think nah, I saw it first.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

No, I saw that. I uh yeah, I saw

First Steps Inside The Caravan

SPEAKER_01 7:40

that first. So you obviously get out of the car, there's so much luggage. Obviously, dad's putting it away and stuff. Your dad or your granddad, whoever's driving, is absolutely knackered after a three-hour drive as well. Obviously, well, your grandad a 14-hour drive to get to get to winter. A couple of sleeps, yeah. Yeah, with a couple of sleeps, but everyone liked the knackered and stuff. But getting into the caravan, do you remember like sort of it's odd this now to think about because we me and you still do caravan holidays um like once a year normally? I and I don't I now I I'm not really bothered at all about like what the caravan, as long as it's not like scruffy or anything like that. Do you remember like thinking like I don't know, oh this is a bad caravan or this is a good caravan? I don't think I've ever given a shit. Yeah, I don't think I've ever given a shit.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

There's something about a caravan. I mean, Jody's dad's got a really nice caravan at the minute, but even before that he had one that was a little bit older, but still, yeah, the the kind of the opening up the door and going into the caravan, it's br it's brilliant. It's like a this is your little holiday home.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

It's it kind of feels like a the Do you know what it felt a little bit like going into a doll's house? Everything's miniature, isn't it? I was trying to think of like uh like a polypocket that like girls used to have way, like you kind of it's all compartmentalized, it's all sort of everything's everything's folded, everything's like you pull out beds and folders and little ladders up to the bunk, like the smallest bunny if you're having bunk beds in it and stuff, like the smallest ladders of all time. I love all that. Stripey bed sheets, we should mention. Obviously, uh Phil Ridley.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Yeah, we did it. We have yeah, you couldn't believe I couldn't remember them.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Well, I remember them. Stripey bed sheets, obviously, we're we're a big thing of it. Zero uh privacy, I think, Liam, in uh in a car.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

You kind of sign up to you know, this is what it is like when when you go. I mean, it's slightly better now, but even now I would say it's like if we do go to Jody's dad's caravan and we and take my mum and dad, we tend to give them the bigger bedroom. And if if you need to go to the toilet, you kind of it's all out there. They can hear what's going on in there.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

It's not if you're yeah, if you'll take it, can't you can't, you just you simply can't bang one out, can you, Liam? Oh, I didn't mean that, but but no, no, no, but you no, no, no, no, no. But I'm just saying, I'm I'm I'm taking it to the next step. You can't, you just can't do it. That's not I mean it's really shaky as well, innit?

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Like makes a I mean I I can imagine Berlin Blade listening, thinking, trust me, it can be done. But yeah, I know what you mean.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

My nano is she's all does this to this day when we go away with her, actually. She'll always walk in and she'll find something really small. Well, tell you what, cupboards are a bit small, aren't they? Do you know what I mean? Like always like so that that hinge is loose on that one. See, but look how they've left this percussion here to the side. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Like something really but no, I I still to this day, when I first go, as I say, we're going fairly soon, and I still get that kind of real wave of nostalgia going into a caravan. I think it's a fantastic fit. I think you very quickly though realise it's shit like you just said, you pet you kind of privacy's gone and everything's a bit more difficult. Like it sort of seems great, but then actually you've got no space, it very quickly becomes a mess. That if if it's kind of one of them things in it where like if somebody's up, particularly like somebody like my dad, who's sort of shuffling around moving things around and humming to himself, it's like, well, that's it then, everyone's up now then.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, it's horrible because like no one you can't be quiet. You can't be quiet. Like, all it'll take is someone to get up and just put TV on and you you can hear it blasting out, like you know, like the news or whatever. You're like, Well, that's me up there, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 11:10

It's like I I Well they used to sort of sway a bit when someone were moving around. I think they've got better than that.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

They got bigger, but there's some of the little small sorts of it's it's hard to it's hard to scale them now because super caravans, not the ones that I use or anything, but some of them are like proper like little homes, aren't they? Proper homes.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Yeah, well we we've stayed in some that are kind of borderline lodge, so they they kind of have that roof ridge, which Jones Dad's does now actually, but they're they're much bigger and wider, some of the lodge type ones. But yeah, they they just had a slanted roof. There wasn't a sort of ridge in the middle, and they were quite narrow, and you're almost sort of squeezing past the middle bedroom that we used to have, which was right next to the kitchen. So you could kind of hear every sort of tap turned on, was kind of like as if someone was just squirting in your ear or something.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Oh, you've just given me a memory there, actually. Someone put it water on when you're in shower, and there's always like a who's got who's put water on here? I'm trying to have a shower here, and it was like freezing cold because someone, oh sorry.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Because red hot on them freezing cold, yeah. Um on the But I mean, what I would say though is like obviously there's a lot wrong with sort of caravans, but I I still think great holidays, like I don't have any.

Rain On The Roof Comfort

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah, there's so sort of rain on the roof of a caravan, in my opinion, is possible genuinely might be the the best sound, like natural sound ever.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Yeah, I completely don't disagree. A little bit of wind, a nice spattering of rain. We we once stayed in the lake district when Jody was pregnant with Tilly, and yeah, I just remember one morning waking up at about probably about half six, seven o'clock, and it was just nice and cool, and there's like gentle rain on the roof, and I just thought, God, this is so relaxing. I just remember going to a really deep sleep again, like, yeah, brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

I went to Whitby actually north this year with my dad, it was just that sundown. We said, Oh, we're just gonna get away, uh, go to Whitby. And um we were like sort of looking at the weather, hoping we were gonna have a day where it was gonna rain at night. Do you know what I mean? My dad loves like watching thunder out of the uh window. Do you remember that year when me and you went separately to the same place and it absolutely pissed it down?

unknown 13:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Do you remember that? We were taking we were taking videos and sending them to each other saying, Oh, my name were convinced the caravan were gonna like go into sea because it was that windy, she went, Oh, we're gonna go, we're gonna go. Because like we were quite near at sea.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

I think it'd be some effort to get the caravan to get float up and over like the sort of hill at the front and take you into the sea. Yeah, and I never thought that. I didn't she was so scared. All the sort of campsites were flooding and full of water, but yeah, I I think what's nice is, and and I don't know how common this is, but that you can still find those type of places. As I say, Chapter St. Leonards, we've said, it's like going back in time, but yeah, you know, in terms of how I remember it, it's not hugely different these days on Chappa St.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Leonard's. No, no, no, at all. Another thing I want to mention before we move on is the small we spoke spoke about the small cereal boxes, which is such a treat, I think, on holiday. Like it just I think that sort of sums up a holiday that the small cereal boxes.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, and you had to kind of like we tend to have takeaways or eat out nowadays, but but with mum and dad we had a lot of like a food and maybe in the evening cooked in a caravan a couple of times while we were there, and we'd make pipe lunches, and yeah, it just felt like everything was so hard work, like the tiniest little oven you'll ever see, like uh doll's house oven almost.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

But like, yeah, no, uh that's another thing, actually. How would you work things in there? How does this work? This this way, you know, like do you know what I mean? And everyone's like sort of filling around like TV every year. My dad'll say, like when I go, this is like going back to his TV don't work. Oh, I bet it does. No, no, no, don't work. Look, it's like, no, you press it wrong thing. All right, yeah. TV don't work, just like that happening. Yeah, write it off. TV's gone. TV's gonna be off.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

I like how there's sometimes like an extra switch for things as well. So like you turn the power on, turn the plug on, and it's not working, and then you find like there's an extra switch, yeah. Like cooker.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Another thing you do as well, you always find stuff. Uh this is Sal Peter K this episode. You always find stuff um at the end that you've been looking for for the only thing like, oh, they did have those pint glasses or whatever. Do you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Last draw. I'm not gonna believe this. Do you know how we've been eating of like everything out of bowls? Plates are in here, they're in this cupboard.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Hey yeah, it's mad. It's such a small place, but there's always something that like another thing they have as well, these DVDs that no one watches or whatever. Do you sometimes they don't even got a DVD player?

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Never always does Netflix.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, man, that'll go through again. Look, dirty dancing. It's like we're never gonna watch them. Like it's what you do with dirty dancing here, uh Superman.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Oh, but I saw it outside a charity shop not that long ago, but Frazier series two, thinking, I'll take that to caravan with me, but why I'm never gonna watch it.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Bever and scramble digs.

Clubhouses And Bingo Chaos

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Did you go on places with like clubhouses on site?

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Yeah, not so much when I was younger. So when I was little, we tended to sort of walk off the site to a a nearby pub. But as as I got a little bit older, yeah, we there were sometimes like a a clubhouse or a kind of events place on site. But I think you'll probably have much stronger memories of that than me being on sort of some of the the bigger parks. The havens.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Um but yeah, I think well all all I remind you of clubhouses is um bingo, my name playing bingo, or anyone, you know, the women going out to play bingo and stuff. I I'm never into bingo, and I I've a bit of an anecdote there. I've told it you before. Last yeah, well last year, I saw you had to remember we went to I went to play bingo and my nan. She's she's not in the um how do I put it? What would you say, Liam, about that? Uh she's non well because she's she's she's non-politically. No, it's not, yeah, she's yeah, she's not she's no politically correct, but it's not that.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

She it she sort of Well, she's very kind of She thinks things are going against her very quickly, doesn't she? She's like, She thinks like uh hold on a minute. I'm being stitched up here.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly happened. So they were like six games of bingo, she won three of them, and then as she were going to collect her winning, she goes, Yeah, I've won four. I've won four. I go, aren't you? I go, right, I'm just gonna get toilet. I went to the toilet, came back out. She went, I just saw her pointing at the at the man goes, I've won four of these, I've won four. So I'd say, Look, I don't think you have, I think you've won three. She started calling me a coward. You're a coward, you like mad, like mad. Everyone's like waiting to collect the winnings. They're only about like 40 pounds, it weren't like a massive like sort of thing. She goes, I've I've been stitched up here. I went out with her, she came running, went running back in to talk to Bouncer. I go, have you heard about what's going on in there? It's like unbelievable. It was just like, and even to this day, she don't think she were wrong. I go, I can't believe you called me a coward, which is where you think I'm daft. I know. And she definitely didn't win four out of six at all.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

I mean, for one person to win three out of six games.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

That's my that's what I was saying. That's I was saying that. I said, that is it's crazy that you've won three. Why have you added another one on there? They don't do that anymore, by the way. Because obviously, I don't remember the last time you played. Have you ever played bingo? I can't imagine you're playing bingo.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

I've played it at home with the kids. I don't think I've ever no, I probably probably have sort of. In fact, I know I have at Chap St. Leonard's head uh is it JW's, JT's, what one of those two on the bend. I've I've played bingo in there, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

They don't do it's not for me to be honest. I I don't like it. They do do they do the still the two fat ladies, AT. I I imagine they can't get away with that, too.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Yeah, I think they've got some round there that I don't even know if they're just specific to them as well. There's I mean bingo aficionados might say, oh no, that's a thing, but there's a couple I've heard, Chap St. Leonard's that I've never heard anywhere. There's one it's something and nine, it might be four and nine, the Stanford line, and everyone goes, choo-choo.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Yo, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Maybe that is a thing, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

No, I have heard that one, yeah. Legs 11, obviously. That's another one in bingo. I'll share a clip actually of some people when the smoking.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

I'll tell you like a slight a little bingo anecdote there as well, because I thought it was brilliant. So we played bingo in Cornwall with my mum and dad, and there was like a prize bag for the winner, and we'd put some sweets and like I don't know, chocolate biscuits and stuff in it. So if he was doing the calling out of the numbers, and if you won, there were only little short games, she'd reach in a bag and pull you something out, and that was your prize. We'd like me and her had arranged it beforehand, but my dad won, so she reached in a bag, rummaged around for a bit as if she were kind of looking for a good one, and then pulled out the uh the middle finger up gesture. I think she'd got a bag six. I'm telling you, crying well after.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Remember when your dad uh said, Look, you've got to be careful with this book. This is a massive tangent. Do you know what I'm gonna say here?

SPEAKER_02 19:32

No, that weren't my dad, that were uh J.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Oh, sorry. Oh sorry, I thought I thought, yeah, do you want to tell the story?

SPEAKER_02 19:37

I I think it's the same one you're talking about. Yeah, I was uh I used to travel in a work van um and there was an Irish guy, and I sat with him on the middle row. Sometimes I'd drive there and I'd sit on the way back. But but anyway, he was telling me about people used to bring him in books to read. He was like a big reader, but he said he was telling me one day on the way home, and apologies if I told this before, but he said, Oh, sure. I have a book in here, boy. You gotta be very careful around this one. This is not for everybody. You could get in a whole lot of trouble with this book. And he reached in his back and pulled out Frankie De Tory's autobiography. Apparently he had some kind of IRA book in there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

But you want to be careful. Frankie De Tories, yeah. Frankie De Tory's autobiography. So obviously they do bingo

Rides Sweets And Seaside Rules

SPEAKER_01 20:20

and stuff. Uh uh any rides that stand out for your limb like as a kid. Uh I mean, I've never been a huge sort of fairground rides person. Uh I remember once you saying you you've you've got uh what did you say, you've got enough excitement in your life with your motto about rides at one point.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Yeah, I mean I like my adrenaline sort of peaks anyway, even if like if somebody just pushes in front of me in a queue, like I'm I'm I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

That's your ride, isn't it? That's your log food.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

I I don't need sort of spinning around and shaking about and stuff, but I mean for a certain amount of time I would go on like waltzers and things, but nowadays.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yeah, I just like walking.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

Um no, we were never big friends. I mean, there's not really anything like that at Whitby anyway, for that I remember, and certainly at New Key, we might have gone on some of the little kids' rides, but but no, I've I've done American Adventure, I've done Horton Towers, been there, done that. It's not really my thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Did you ever go to Blackpool as a kid?

SPEAKER_02 21:14

No, I've never been. Never been to Blackpool.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Have you not? Do you remember the Pepsi Max ride? I think it was like the biggest one. Yeah, I went on that once, just the roller coaster, really. But yeah, that was massive. It starts really high though, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Yeah, it is high. It is high.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

I would hate that first bit where it has to click up that hill really slowly. Like Oh, I mean, we might do an episode on old rides because some of the old rides, I can't bel not our era, talking before. I can't believe people I don't know how they didn't kill everybody, basically.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Yeah. Well, there's a thing in the Frank Skinner anecdote where and I think it's it's the joke that Joe Pasquale got done for stealing off him. I think he it got before might be wrong, so allegedly, I'll say.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

But I think Frank Skinner used to say said when he was younger, he used to go on a fairground ride and he'd have like a nut and a bolt in his pocket just before it was about to start he'd sort of pick him up off pretend to pick him up off the floor and say does anyone know where these have come from and then like obviously the rider go. Ah classic yeah so I think I think that was a joke that yeah I don't know what what you can say and what you can't because I I'm obviously I'm hugely slandering Joe Pasqually if uh if it isn't true but I think that's what he got done for.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

But the joke's coming thick and as fast as they're doing Joe Pasquale's head then there's bound to be something somebody's already said yeah yeah but obviously I I wasn't a massive rye person. Sweets were a big thing like candy flosses the only time I had candy floss were where I were on holiday.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

I used to get it at Grace Park at uh Bonfire Night. Oh yeah yeah and on uh holiday yeah you're right but yeah like I I mean it's another thing as well I don't know I when I'm little maybe I always liked ice creams but it's really the only time now that I'll I'll have an ice cream is a is a holiday yeah you feel like you should have to you should have an ice cream I don't know how much I enjoy it I'm not really that bothered but I kind of feel sometimes like well you're at seaside you probably should have one.

Arcades And The Pull Of Coins

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Were you allowed to go in the sea at these places? I mean it might be a bit different at Cornwall but certainly where I would go in is like Skegness and stuff like that. The shitty sea it was like yeah you can't you can't go in there.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

I I swim boy yeah oh really straight in dived in not a dive in but yeah no I do like to go in I think like even as a really young kid I have a really early memory of mum and dad sort of taking me where I couldn't touch the bottom and they'd sort of put my hands their hands underneath me and let me sort of swim around them for a bit and I thought I was great. And they still do that to this day.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

No obviously I I swim on my own I swim solo these days I like I like to swim on my own normally most times. Yeah we were never allowed in there were one holiday and I don't know where it was actually unsafe or because it was dirty. It just shape dirty shape my dad used to say like you say you're not going in there no I don't maybe just come out dirty dirty shit dirty dirty shape dad can I go in the sea well it's just dirty dirty shape dirty innit it's dirty shape. There were ones we walked for ages and we found like this little secluded a bit like finding a desert island like and it they were really nice easy I remember like being allowed to swim in that one but yeah not not not the Skegness eh Desert Island wasn't it Skeg Ness I don't know where I don't think it was Skig N I can't remember where it was it might have been no I'm gonna say something really stupid when I say York there's no beach at York is there no um Stamford Bridge we went I can't remember where it were anyway we went so can I uh have a shower when we get in no it's just shit dirty shit it's just shit dirty shit in it but the the main excitement I got and I don't know if you're with mate when I went away when I were a kid were the arcades yeah yeah well I think it probably sort of was the start of some of my uh kind of gambling problems in later life to be honest but yeah look at that even as a kid though like when you were 10 year old you weren't banging 10 pounds into the uh into the I reckon as a 10 year old I was on the slot machines uh the 10p slot machines and I was I was always quite lucky as a kid I think that again that's yeah one of the reasons why I don't do it now because yeah it starts started as a winner and then you end as a loser don't you really so I think it is I love the RKs I love the 2p machines I mean the kids still do now but I think I kind of just it's just really frustrating now because it takes ages to win the tackiest little thing. And maybe that's how it was when we were little but yeah they're so impatient these days like they just absolutely piling in 2P it costs like 20 quid to try and win like a couple of years again good story about banana once went in this running about three years ago I went into like it's gonna come get you now and see what she's doing. She was shaking a two pen machine because this is a fiddle this this is an absolute I was what you're doing she were like proper shaking it like absolute nutcase um yeah the two P machines where you win like a little crappy sort of thing and then who even has them no one like I never get who plays the 10p version because that must be absolutely financially crippling those ones do you know like the same type of machine but the 10 Ps would be a good sketch that like sort of how did you lose all your money like the 10 P machines they got me didn't they as soon as I walked in but for me the nothing I used to like a horse racing one as well which was oh that was really good remember the uh did the dude I always remember number eight being called Gaylord yeah remember that the pink pink as well weren't it yeah pink yeah called Gaylord I imagine what one in every 5,000 plays you'd win and it were about £240 and that was like the biggest one weren't it oh no maybe maybe we talk about different things then because this one you you'd put like your 10p but you'd get different odds on each horse and if it won like so I don't know if number eight was outside it might be like 12 to one so if it won you'd get £120 in your bank yeah but it was only like £10p a go like the the one I'm thinking of anyway and I think so you could bank the favourite there was only like two to one so you get 30p back I think you could do multiple as well so you could do more than one horse and it'd light up and then you'd watch it sort of run along the little track and see which one got to the front first. Yeah but in terms of arcades the thing that I loved is it's hard to explain to kids nowadays I think and maybe even like people in the 20s how much better arcade games were than what you had on the home computer you know like in C64s and Amigas. It were incredible you'd go in every year and it'd just be like this wall of like different jingles and sounds and graphics that you'd never seen and every year there'd be a newer game out and you'd be like oh my god look at that do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Yeah I mean we we didn't get tons of a budget to play on the RK games but yeah Sega Alley have a couple of goals on that and as you say so different to what you could play at home like I mean I had uh outrun on the Atari which was obviously just flat screen you sort of turning a little joystick left and right and then you could sit in this what felt like a real car it was just a kind of plastic seat but and yeah just the noise and the vibration everything brilliant yeah and and I mean like even the modern equivalent would be time crisis I don't know what the first ones were but like the the early shooters were fantastic as well obviously people played Duck Hunt on the Nintendo but it's just a different league to what you could play in the arcade.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Yeah you kind of have similar setups to this at home now can't you which I think was just this was a different world like it was a different gaming experience completely this were genuinely that and then maybe if I said like a cliche it would genuinely like walking into the future it really was you'd been playing your Amigas at home or whatever playing I don't know Monkey Island and Sensible so like a good games or whatever maybe a bit late a bit too late there but anyway good games and then you'd play football champ which is just this the mad graphics and bicycle kicks and you know I mean these like sort of gold but even I mean they did come to the sort of consoles a little bit after this but even like your Street Fighters and your um virtual fight virtual fighters. Well I always thought like it's the consoles they did but in the early like before just before the console or maybe you know early nights maybe Mega Drive's out you'd play a game so you'd play I don't know um Daytona USA or like you had said or whatever it'd be and then you'd buy you that version for your Amiga and it'd be so shit compared it'd be such a I remember again football tramp I remember like thinking I need that it's out on Amiga it's good it was such a it was so much slower and like there were no it was just no soul to it or anything.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

When you went into these arcades I always remember Operation Wolf to be as a shoot 'em up I don't if you remember that oh the name rings a bell yeah yeah and it was always like sorry yeah I there was one as well where you press the pedal and you duck behind stuff and things like there were like little clever gimmicky things and yeah I don't know I I think the arcades are a fantastic place but I mean just the noises and the lights and the obviously when we were kids you could smoke in there as well so there's a bit smoky in the evenings when it you go in to get out of the rain and yeah just I don't know constant something just flashing and catching your eye and yeah I mean the design just to kind of really keep kind of like a poor man's Vegas in it.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Yeah really well I I used honestly that was the thing I used to look forward to be like oh I wonder what new arcades are out like or like WrestleFest I used to love Simpsons like I'll go back to Operation Wolf by the way the ending always used to scare me I might share it I think I might have shared it before I'll share it again um I'll fucking share it again is I take charge yeah I'd take charges when you um you you lose it said you have suffered a lethal injury sorry but you are finished here and really like depressive music and as like a 10 year old I'd be like oh that's a bit horrible do you know what I mean but we got that image at the end of Street Fighter didn't you that I know kind of followed onto the consoles but consoles but first time I'd seen it was in the arcade where your character was kind of really badly beaten up and like you just got a 10 second count now looking at yourself barred and bruised and then it went off.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

It's so free do you ever complete a game in an arcade?

SPEAKER_01 30:48

No I wouldn't I wouldn't have had the the funds I don't think I ever I can no way I had a complete there were once I always remember once and I put my dad put a pound in to I think we're football champ again actually and it didn't work. So we called Bloat Rangers always put a pound in you get two games for a pound because I'll tell you what I'll give like I think he gives like 15 games just got his key out you know like you go ding ding ding and I thought that that was like a magic key to me that wow I thought I just thought like imagine having that key going round and putting as many credits as you you can do anything.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

That's proper proper power that Donald Trump thinks he's got power doesn't he but that man has got power.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

He was the coolest man I'd ever seen at that point I was just like you you lucky bastard do you ever play Space Harrier? Were that another one when you sat in it?

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Uh only on the Atari never in the arcade I like that I like the music too welcome to the fantasy zone.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

Get ready and then like you go like you'd be oh that were amazing you died.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

I can't think of the music yeah oh I can't think of the tune but it was brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Oh brilliant absolutely fucking one of the best the best yeah that the the arcades for me with a with a take home I I used to remember like sort of going home and that were the thing I'd be like oh I just I need to go and play that again like I would just oh yeah design to kind of to get addicted to it almost like it's constantly something to catch your eye and I mean you you'd sort of walk out there and your head would be spinning like and you could still hear like noises and coins dropping and and like yeah it's just uh quite a an attack on the sensors really but yeah no I I love the arcades.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

I mean we still take the kids in now but I I don't know they don't have quite the same charm I don't think no what did you used to do at

Nights Out Then Family TV

SPEAKER_02 32:25

night? Because I I remember seeing cannon and ball once with my uh with my parents we we'd normally I'd say a normal night would be walk to a local pub get some tea mum and dad have a couple of drinks we'd have a couple of bottles of case fish and chips in newspaper yeah sometimes go down like into Whitby or or kind of walk into New King and get fish and chips but sometimes it'd be just like a a pub meal and then it'd be back and actually this is a bit because we've kind of got out of doing a hab this at home where I don't know how much this speaks to modern society and how much anyone else listening agrees but we don't watch Lowe's now as a family everybody's watching their own things on their own devices and one thing that I do like at the caravan and it used to be like either a video or a DVD now it's Netflix but we do tend to kind of get together and watch something in an evening and I and I like that. I think that's nice.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

On that by the way have you seen that Sam Fender song that's um Sam Fender and Olivia Dummer one that nobody's heard. Yeah and everyone's getting really mad about it like people who say people are say I've never heard it and people are saying no no people are saying like oh you they just you're either massively out of touch which in our case maybe you know that might be true. Or and people saying oh the or the lions just they'll look cool. But what you've just like summed it up the reason is everyone's in their own little um like sort of their own zones aren't they or echo chambers.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Really why would you be listening unless you're a fan of those two artists why why would you I I've listened to music this week but it's it's stuff that I know that I like I'm and that's sad but unless it's sort of something that's been released by an artist I like yeah I generally don't know where else I would come across it. I don't really listen to music on a radio anymore.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

No that's what I mean it's like everyone would have known talk spoo are tore nothing for me. Everything I do that's not talk spoo much uh Durham coming out with that no but everything I do and wet wet where with the big ones obviously I think everywhere everyone from the age 10 to 90 knew those songs at the time oh yeah you couldn't get away from I Will Always love you and the Brian Adams one I mean they everywhere you went yeah yeah yeah and now that like I say I do think that is again like genuinely I I completely agree with what you just said but I it's not trying to be cool I'd love to say I know that song yeah I've never heard it I don't I think sound alive and I've never heard it I mean it we're at a festival I'm not like a huge fan but I even I've never heard who's the other one who's done it with him Olivia Dean do you know what he reminds me of that I don't even know who that is I thought you were going to say Olivia Rodriguez who the the girls listen to but I don't know who that is. Olivia Dean what's her name uh who plays Sharon from EastEnders oh Letitia Dean yeah that's how I keep thinking every time I I've never seen this Olivia Dean character I might have but I didn't bring you know it didn't come to mind. I think of her Sam Fender and and her from Letitia Dean East E Letitia Dean yeah anyway back to the subject in hand like we're talking about night times what I used to love about the nighttime stuff in in those sort of places is that everything lit up it looks so good.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

Yeah yeah particularly if you were near to I mean we were a bit isolated in Whitby but but sort of more recently in Chap St. Leonards and even I I think probably a little bit in Porth the things around you'd be lit up the arcade would still be lit up at night the bar was lit up there was I mean I I love on some of the sort of more modern smart caravan sites where they have just like little small lights around the track just to the whole place has a little bit of a a glow to it but yeah no you're right that that is a kind of real nostalgia memory of being a caravan because there's no street lights on the site so you you just you're just getting the lights from the other people's caravans really.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

I genuinely getting a bit of goosebumps here I'm not even joking it's like a bit of a like going by obviously we like I say we still go but as a kid you got to stay up late which I mean to be fair there's no point trying to go to bed because the if it's on in one room like it's just might as well be blasting out in every room. But even that if clubs were on and stuff you're like down road like oh yeah yeah like we always like 80 stuff very specific to me as well but uh I think it was an evening memory I'm um you you might know better than me your football sounded so much like Alan Bennett then I think it was an evening memory yeah almost certain it was on a Wednesday um but now that's where I saw uh David Platt score for England in Italian 90 was in a caravan in Whitney shit yeah which I think you mentioned that on the Italian 90 game wasn't it yeah it was yeah it was a late game that yeah yeah yeah yeah um Plattyboy I don't know if I ever went to the World Cup actually that's a good question now I always used to those holidays remind me of the charts of that time for some reason I don't know why that is I think it's because on the way down to to satisfy everybody my dad had just have the radio on I always remember like Ebonese are good remember Sybil Sybil The Love the Love I Last is yeah I didn't know Sybil I know the song yeah that I don't know why that just sticks in my head as like a holiday song um it look I used to go as well to Woolworths and buy a single either for my tape player or I don't know if I ever would have had a disc man my brother did but yeah I think for my tape player I'd go and buy a single at Woolworths in uh in Whitby I did that I genuinely used to do that I mean I once were away but it were away some blur and I thought oh I'm gonna go and buy um one of those two I to be honest I was gonna buy Country House I thought that were a better song and then I got there and do you know I come back with Suggs his album I don't know why I don't know what happened there but I think my brother I'd love to take credit for this but I think my brother bought it on tapes I don't know if I bought like an England football song or something but seems to remember he got how bazaar how bazaar I think that's probably first time I heard that as a single but yeah no I think uh good good times good times down in uh well this way to say when you were packing away I I think but I don't know if you were like this I you know me I'm I'm a bit of a panicker and I'm a bit I I do genuinely struggle to live in the moment I'm always thinking about I'm always thinking about my next move um but I

The Countdown To Going Home

SPEAKER_01 38:20

uh I I always like used to think oh there's only three days left there's only two days left oh my god we're going back tomorrow it genuinely like haunted me well yeah we've we've said I mean I I'm a little bit like that not not as much as you but we very rarely seem to do it these days but I I love a two week holiday because the first week I I can really switch off it's fine don't even think about work or school or whatever it was almost as soon as you hit that one week to go you're like well this is last Monday we'll have away won't it last Monday and then we're back to work and then ah three days you believe there's only three days left we're not going to get everything done now are we like yeah it's all of a sudden it's just a countdown to to misery of the yeah I think the final I get that to this day to be genuinely like two days to go you're thinking I've been looking at I think the double bubble as well like these days I would say these days but these days if you're the the designated driver I think that puts an extra level of like oh I bet that's yeah it's like when we come back from Cornwall it's it's not only the fact that coming back to to work and normality and school for the kids but it's the five hour journey five and a half hour journey down there that that was fine we were playing songs it was all good now becomes like that the hardest drive in the world it's like well I'd like to say one of the things I was going to say is one of the gut drop moments I think is when you pass uh a monument or whatever that you saw on the way in when you were so excited it's almost like the thing that made you excited to be there is now the kind of real marker of right you've had your fun that's it now it's done it it reminds me so much of do you know um bullseye look what you could have worn you know like really sad news it but you're going other ways that's well and like I don't know if your mum and dad used to do this as well like I used to think shut up like my mum would say uh oh look at these people here these are just coming on there all the day we're gonna be fuck off Liam yeah yeah yeah that is all to be fair they did do it they did do it the other way around as well so when we were getting there they'd like say look at these luminous we were just getting here yeah my mum you say things as well like sort of like this would have been really young like say goodbye to that for another year like no need no need at all for that but yeah genuinely amazing amazing times like I thought like the days felt endless if you know what I mean like by the way for anyone thinking uh I can't believe you're not mentioned sort of going going to Mallorca or I don't know where other people did but you know we we were very much non-woke as kids weren't we we we just england for the English weren't it yeah yeah we I never went abroad till I went abroad with school um went to France for a day yeah I think I know Debat called me out on that I think I think it's been explained hasn't it wasn't it an overnight journey we should have done it in our unexplained last week actually the mystery of how I did France in the day now I the only way the only time I went away uh before I was 18 abroad was my dad my granddad and my name were going

UK Holidays Versus Going Abroad

SPEAKER_01 41:10

my granddad got asbestos yeah asbestosis you really early ended up dying like not so long after and those tickets went to me and my dad and that's the only time I yeah every cloud yeah every cloud and I remember going genuinely at the time and being I remember phoning my mum up saying oh it's not as good as like scaregar why didn't your mum and dad go like what are you doing now with your dad I don't know why we were there why didn't your mum I presume I presume because all the family were going I presume there were no one to look after me because my granddad was so ill because all like my aunties and all that sort of were going so I think it was just a case of you know who's going out of your dad and your mum and my dad obviously took that offer up straight away. My mum never bothered about going abroad yeah mumma never bothered about going abroad but I do remember phoning and saying oh you know I don't it's all right because there's not as much to do on a I can imagine though you say yeah I'll tell you what it's tell you what we're missing you it's boring.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Your dad in background with like a pint in each hand dancing on a table.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Yeah up there putting like £25,000 not red like with the cigar amazing but yeah no I genuinely as a kid I think UK holidays are a genuinely so much more fun personally I don't know what it's like now but yeah I mean even even to this day I must admit there's still for me yeah we do tend to do Cornwall it is a bit of a drive but I do like the fact we get in the car and then it's kind of it's our time there whereas I hate having to get through an airport get through security the other side get your bus there I there's still something for me about a UK holiday that I absolutely love and yeah and I I I relax more on UK holidays. I genuinely relax you you're in your own it was the worst case scenario you go home if you know what I mean it's not as simple is it when you're abroad you know what I mean there's always something that could go wrong there's always like sort of uh you don't know the the area and stuff like that. I I do I feel a lot sort of I don't know if we mentioned this on a podcast before as well but do you remember when uh we talked about this recently actually um in in private but um well not not in private we were in a public place but it's okay to talk about sometimes we get together don't we and put it in a toilet shut the doors just make sure it's just me and you then we can talk yeah but no what we were saying uh with Tom um once when we went to I think I think it was Grankin area and I in the airport bought some of those little padlocks and when you weren't looking I padlocked all your bag up obviously I had the key but then we put it checked it in you didn't notice then when we got through to when we got to the rooms the other side you went absolutely mad and said fucking hell my mum's locked my fucking thing up with the I thought she'd locked everything you're booting your bag around I was so angry I because I thought I thought she'd locked my stuff so I couldn't get because well because you were like going I don't know what you're gonna do there's no way you can get that out now I remember like just something you're gonna have to rip your case out of cut it up but then I don't know how you're gonna get your stuff home and you were like oh for fuck's sake I was so angry and then you obviously yeah pulled the key out it were good that were good though that were good that were very good yeah um great print beautiful print bullying green jell green jell scene didn't it what was his name Roller you were very much anyway Liam thank you for that and we'll be back next week from yeah cheers everyone that that was particularly nostalgic that one we uh really nostalgic genuinely yeah not normally our high quality humour I don't think with that one obviously we're normally you know you know us like we we're always coming out with the jokes but honestly I said to you privately again when when we're into a toilet privately when I was like sort of looking at some old holidays to get like the the feels I genuinely like the first my mum obviously passed away a couple of months ago I was genuinely getting quite emotional thinking back to these days going oh my god we had some great holidays it this is the

Closing Plug And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_01 44:50

one where I thought yeah it's not been like a laugh out loud but it's one that I'm it's it's moved milliam it's moved me yeah we've hopefully we've charmed you so yeah we'll uh we'll be back with more next one might be a few more laughs but might not be as in as as memory like by the way on memory lane I'm sure everybody listening to this does know this but you you do a couple of other podcasts don't you but memory lane is your pinch based one isn't it so yeah if you're a Sheffield United fan check out memory lane uh hosted by the pinch I don't even think you need to I think if you like the sort of nostalgia side of football I don't think you need to be fine I think it's it's worth a listen. Yeah yeah yeah well thank you for that one it's not but it's alright innit yeah it'll do right thank you very much Liam right see you guys bye thank you for listening to Who Remembers if you want to get in touch with us you can find us at who remembers pod at outlook.com if you are a right wing fascist you can find us on Twitter at Who RemembersPod or if you're a woke note you can find us on Blue Sky at Whorememberspod. Once again thank you for listening and we'll see you next time for more remembering