Vacations / Holidays as a Child

debodun

debodun

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Location
way upstate in New York, USA
When you were a kid, was there a particular venue your family visited each year for a summer vacation/holiday? Or did you go someplace different every year?

Starting when I was 4 (1956), my parents heard of a place in Wells, Maine from their pastor at that time. We started going there regularly every summer. I can't remember exactly when we stopped going, but I was probably a teenager. We went to Drakes Island Beach almost every day (weather permitting) and also visited Ogunquit (Perkin's Cove), Kennebunkport and York Beach while there. A few times we made longer excursions. One year it was to the "Desert of Maine", and another we went to a trolley museum.
 

Fishing weekends with my Papa and Gramps, catching cat fish and one time caught a winner for Papa (he had the licence so even though I caught it with my own reel, he got the trophy). That fish was called ACHIGAN A GRANDE BOUCHE (English translation: Large Mouth Bass).

More often than not there were plenty of religious trips to L'OBSERVATOIRE DU FRERE ANDRE.

Honestly, after 15 years old, I got to travel much more. USofA, New York state, Lake Placid. Cornwall, Ontario at Upper Canada Village and Man and His World Fair. Matane, Québec for drum corps and colour guard flags competitions.

My biggest holiday was 3 weeks in London, England on my own, bestest times but by then I was in my 20s. Once married to my better half, wow, we went all over, yup work was involved but it was amazing.
 
Throughout the 50's & 60's, grandparents would take us to Florida EVERY summer for a week.
On my grandmother's lap ...

fC3oJ63.jpg
 

No...the closest we got to a holiday (vacation) was a single day trip to the beach.. all of my childhood... just one single day...

When I was 14 I was allowed to go away for a week with my friend and her parents.. we went to Rothesay on the Isle of Bute... and it began a life long love for the coast for me. I lived and worked on the Isle of Arran after leaving school.. and as an adult I have visited and lived on or near coasts Europe wide,,,
 
I did a little looking online. The place where we stayed in Wells is still in business, but undoubtedly under different management. Some of the reviews are not the most superlative. The Howard Johnson's restaurant we frequented burned down decades ago and strip malls line Route 1. Like the old adage says,"You can't go back again."
 
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As a child, we went to Pennsylvania during my father's vacation from work to see their families. It was a yearly reunion especially for my mom's large family. It was so much fun; my aunts and older cousins made a big fuss over me.

We spent time with my father's family too, my cousins my age, etc.

On weekends, we often went to the shore with my parent's friends and their kids. Hammonassett Beach State Park.
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The usual vacation was to go visit the grandparents in Virginia. A week with them and then a week in some rickety, falling-apart sandy moldy beach house. It was paradise, at least for us kids. I don't think my mother had a restful vacation, though.

Other vacations were weekend (and one memorable....for the wrong reasons...two-week camping trip where it rained constantly) camping trips. I KNOW my mother didn't enjoy those. We kids sure did, though.
 
As a kidling, I went of course wherever the folks went....which was always
West "by god" Virginia, cuz thats wherre they were from...one time as we
were leaving in the car, I jumped out and demanded to stay on there with
my g'parents to live hahahah....I really loved w.va., but didn't stay of course....
 
RadishRose said:
As a child, we went to Pennsylvania during my father's vacation from work to see their families. It was a yearly reunion especially for my mom's large family. It was so much fun; my aunts and older cousins made a big fuss over me.

We spent time with my father's family too, my cousins my age, etc.

On weekends, we often went to the shore with my parent's friends and their kids. Hammonassett Beach State Park.
photo9jpg.jpg
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When my wife and I lived in CT, we usually went to Hammonasset Beach State Park a few times a week. I got out of work at 3:30 in the afternoon and got home in 15 minutes. She would have a cooler packed with sandwiches and drinks, We could get to the beach in a half hour. Stay there long enough to watch the sun go down over the water,

I once found a red balloon in the water. It was sent by a classroom in New Jersey who had a letter attached asking that whoever found the balloon, would they please send a return letter saying where we found it.

She wrote back that out of quite a few balloons that were released, this one had gone the furthest.

Growing up, we went to Wildwood NJ, for two weeks, every year because my grandparents owned a rooms to rent place there.

After 2 weeks away, it felt like we were rediscovering our house for the first time when we returned home.
 
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My Dad was a railway man so he got a free family pass, we went to stay with his sister who lived in Mont Albert, Victoria. We were only very young and had to sleep 2 to a bed, foot to foot. We did this for only 2 years but that was the best time ever. After that, school holidays were so boring, we
only went to the movies nearly every Saturday afternoon.
 
hollydolly said:
No...the closest we got to a holiday (vacation) was a single day trip to the beach.. all of my childhood... just one single day...

When I was 14 I was allowed to go away for a week with my friend and her parents.. we went to Rothesay on the Isle of Bute... and it began a life long love for the coast for me. I lived and worked on the Isle of Arran after leaving school.. and as an adult I have visited and lived on or near coasts Europe wide,,,
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What a coincidence in names. I spent 5 years of my youth in a village by the name of Rothesay but of course it was in Canada - New Brunswick to be precise; very close to the Atlantic coast. I remember growing up there fondly between the age of 5 yrs. & 10 yrs. old. It was exactly the right place at the right time in my youth. Go outside after breakfast, come home for lunch the back out till supper time. Those were the days and we had SO many adventures 😍
 
OldFeller said:
When my wife and I lived in CT, we usually went to Hammonasset Beach State Park a few times a week. I got out of work at 3:30 in the afternoon and got home in 15 minutes. She would have a cooler packed with sandwiches and drinks, We could get to the beach in a half hour. Stay there long enough to watch the sun go down over the water,

I once found a red balloon in the water. It was sent by a classroom in New Jersey who had a letter attached asking that whoever found the balloon, would they please send a return letter saying where we found it.

She wrote back that out of quite a few balloons that were released, this one had gone the furthest.

Growing up, we went to Wildwood NJ, for two weeks, every year because my grandparents owned a rooms to rent place there.

After 2 weeks away, it felt like we were rediscovering our house for the first time when we returned home.
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Happy you enjoyed Hammonasset and had a fun time discovering that balloon!

Did you go up Rt. 1to Bill's Place next to the "singing bridge"?

I've never been to Wildwood, but my Pennsy cousins used to go.
 
RadishRose said:
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Did you go up Rt. 1to Bill's Place next to the "singing bridge"?

I've never been to Wildwood, but my Pennsy cousins used to go.
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Where in Pa did your cousins live?

I just now looked up Bill's Place. I don't think we ever got there. It doesn't look familiar. But looks like it would have been fun by the pictures on the website.

My daughter and I did a New England vacation in 2017 that included Plymouth, MA. I loved seeing all those boats moored there. The sunset cruise there was a beautiful 2 hour show put on by the sun.20230721_201939.jpg
 
OldFeller said:
Where in Pa did your cousins live?

I just now looked up Bill's Place. I don't think we ever got there. It doesn't look familiar. But looks like it would have been fun by the pictures on the website.

My daughter and I did a New England vacation in 2017 that included Plymouth, MA. I loved seeing all those boats moored there. The sunset cruise there was a beautiful 2 hour show put on by the sun.View attachment 295442
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Both my parents came from Scranton.

Yes, MA is really nice, lots of history there. We used to go to the Cape when I was married.
 
When we were kids, we always went to Dinkey Creek, up in the mountains. It was a long (at that time) ride, through curvy roads and each one of us kids would get car sick. We stayed in a cabin and the showers and bathrooms were located outside somewhere.

As we got older, in our teens, the whole family would go to Santa Cruz for 2 weeks. My Dad would drive us there, turn around and go back home to work, and then come back up on the wknds.

My sister always got to bring 1 or 2 gfirends with her. I'm sure my brother was OK with that. :giggle:
 
When I was a kid, probably 12 or so, my Dad managed to negotiate a 99 year lease on a lighthouse in Atlantic Canada (Prince Edward Island - the New London Lighthouse)).
New London Lighthouse.jpg
It was still an operating light but unoccupied, with the light run on batteries. We had to put in a septic tank for the bathroom and a shower plus electrical panel & outlets throughout the place. It was very basic and quite cramped but hey, who wouldn't love to spend their summers in a lighthouse on a pretty secluded beach.
New London Light.jpg

We'd go there in early July, my Dad would go back to work a couple weeks later but Mom and the kids stayed there until Labor day when we all had to come back. What fun we had for years until the Government (who owned the lighthouses) decided they wanted to break the lease. They said there was a concern for mercury poisoning in the ground surrounding the place, They said that they used to use mercury in the old days in the light part of the lighthouse and they dumped it on the ground when it had to be changed.
We were pretty peed off but in retrospect; glad we had the time we had it 🤩

It has sat empty ever since and is in considerable disrepair now - sad really ☹️
 
hawkdon said:
As a kidling, I went of course wherever the folks went....which was always
West "by god" Virginia, cuz thats wherre they were from...one time as we
were leaving in the car, I jumped out and demanded to stay on there with
my g'parents to live hahahah....I really loved w.va., but didn't stay of course....
Click to expand...
Yes, that sounds right. Majority of my family is from Bluefield, West "By God" Virginia. Left at a young age as my father joined the Air Force. Majority of my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents stayed in the area over these many years, so many kin in that area, hard to shake a tree without one falling out. Took a family 'vacation' there in the summer of '77 - Loved it.
 
I don't remember my parents ever taking week long vacations, but we had many outings. We went with other family members for picnics on the mountain. I passed "our spot" the other day when my honorary daughter took me for a ride and we went to the mountain. We also went to Palisades Amusement Park (N.J.) and on church bus rides to Rye Beach (N.Y.). I know we went to Coney Island at least once. Here I am with my mother. I think this is in Atlantic City before it became a casino town.

Mama & Me Beach.jpg
 

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