Friday 28th August 2020

Oh how I miss the seaside I could cry, I havent seen the sea all year.  I drempt i was back with my parents in Teignmouth in Devon, but those days are long gone now.

Teignmouth, Devon...undated...1970s? | Thanks to David and N… | Flickr  

Life was different then with lots of boats trips people could go on, it was wondeful.  My parents said it was just £6 for a weeks holiday, imagin if I could get two weeks for £12!  But then wage's were lower then.  Apparently the shops stayed open until almost midnight, dad said they closed at 2am which isn't surprising then.  For some wierd reason I've remembered drinking juice while over on Shaldon at the Clipper cafe, strange what things come to mind.

TEIGNMOUTH, SUNKEN GARDENS. Original vintage Excel Series real photo  postcard. - £0.95 | PicClick UK

The sunken garden used to be along the seafront before it was filled in by the council, I remember walking through this to the other side towards the pier. I miss it all but then one does remeniss about their childhood.  I've only got to catch the scent of an odour when I visit, and it brings it all back again.  There was a wishing well in the middle and I often wonder what happened to that, I wonder what happend to the horse that used to stand outside the pier.  I'm fruitlessly looking for a world that doesn't exist anymore, unless I have a time machine.

I'd go looking for the cafe we used to sit in along the seafront.  It had a large windown and a blue door with a bar going across.  the owners had a black labridor who used to come out scrounging for food.  Sometimes we sat in the couryard, there was a hotel next door but that doesn't exist now.  A block of flats now stands where the cafe once stood and the hotel is long gone.

My earliest memory is laying in a carry cot and seeing a seagull flying over with the sun shining through it's wings,  i think my parents must have been in a hurry to get to the train station. I also recall a room with a dull lighbolb and dad looking over the side of the bed, apparently there was a thunderstorm going on and I slept through it.  I couldn't do that now, I'd be shaking.

I didn't have to worry about hairy armpits of shaving my legs then, life was an adventure in Teignmouth I thought it would never end.  How wrong and nieve I was.  We stayed at several places including Redsands which was ran by Mrs Bullock, she was a lovely lady.  She had a Siamise cat who was going blind and a white dog, when she went into hospital and the new owner took over I just felt he wasn't as friendly as she was.  I will see her again even through she's been gone for years, I wonder what she would think of me now?  I wonder if she was there during the war?

We also stayed at a place called the Gypsy moth, it had a resturant underneath and a brown canopy hung over the doorway, which has since been bricked up.  We used to go up the stairs to the flat at the top, it was amazing because I slept on the top of a bunk bed and I'd never been in one before.  Over the road was a camp shop where mum got me a blue mack because it was raining, the shop owner said if I flapped my arms I would fly in it.  Stupid old me believed him, because when we were up grans I wanted to put it on and see if I would fly in the back garden of all places!  Mum said no of course.

Teignmouth | Familypedia | Fandom

Now Teignmouth lookes very different here, the Ness head hasn't changed much (or has it?) just think, the car hadn't been invented then and the only transport people knew had four legs and a tail.  Those are bathing machines on the beach on the left and many people had coal fires and candles for heat and light.  The long wall on the right on the promonaid doesn't exist yet and houses which will become hotel's, are still private homes.

Teignmouth Is Devon [SALE RAIL TRAVEL] – Red Door Posters

My parents came here in 1969 for their weeks honeymoon, the weather was scorching and it must have felt like they were abroad.  They stayed in a place called Thatcher flat at the Alwayns which was at Barnpark Road by the railway station, I've been trying to find it but without much success yet.  They visited Agatha Christies house (Greenway) which I would love to see, when they went it was fine, but apparently it chucked it down just as they were about to leave. Apparently a woman coming in told them not to leave as it was chucking it down. 

Visit Agatha Christie's Greenway House - English Riviera

So I'd have to get ato Torquay and there's a special bus that goes to Greenway, apparently the steam train goes from Paignton to there as well.

Todays news:

I was doing the washing up yesterday and it went all dark then it literally threw it down with rain followed by a silvery white flash of lightening.  Had a few rumbles today, my back is still playing up.  I left a sheet out overnight, lukily no one pinched it. 

Porton Down say they have discovered a spray which could kill the virus, their going to need bucket loads of it if it works.  Next week the schools go back and a lot of people are worried, this virus has devestated a lot of lives.  

Had a zoom meeting with Serve On last night, I felt a bit low as i thought people didn't want to speak to me, Dave was on, nice guy who lives in Brazil; I just felt a bit left out.  I also had the headache from hell the other night.  Seems like Blackpool is on the Corvid-19 watch list now. 







  



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