My Specail Place, My Memories At Fitties.

A Memory of Humberston Fitties.

I was 6 weeks old, I was told by my Mam, when I had my first holiday at Fitties Camp. So that would have been some time in August/September, as I was born in July, 1961. I don't remember my first few years there, lol, but do remember from being 4/5yrs old. It was our Grandparents who owned the caravan, Hilda and Jack Lee, my Mam, Valerie was their only daughter. One of my first memories I can remember is me and my 2 brothers were pushing our younger sister on a three wheel bike around the caravan`s. All of a sudden something strange was poking its eye out of the wheel, me and my 2 brothers ran off screaming, (me being around 5yrs, one brother 3yrs, the other brother would have been 7yrs old, our young sister would have been 2yrs old) anyway Mam met us as she came running towards us asking "whatever is the matter?", we were all upset saying a monster was peeping its eye out of the wheel at us, lol, it wasn't a monster at all, it was the wheel had split and the innertube started squeezing out of the spilt.. As you can guess Mam wasn't very happy that we had left our sister alone on the bike a few caravan rows away....Haha. Over the years this story became very popular in our home, with laughter, but it wasn't funny at the time.
Where the caravan was there was another row at the back of us, then a dyke, which covered over in green algae....my elder brother went straight onto it, thinking it was solid ground, ooops and in it he went... he stunk when he got back out of the dyke. I loved the caravan, even though I was very young I remember it all very well, filling the plastic water bottle up from at tap nearby, having to go to the toilets a short distance away. The caravan was called Ponderosa. We played with friends we met up with every time we went, which was almost every weekend. Two of our friends were the sons of the person who owned Seymours Club, I think one of them was called Christopher or Steven. After a few years Grandad and Nannie sold the caravan and bought a Bungalow, which they named Val- d-ree, by this time I was 7yrs old. The bungalow was like a second home for us, there every weekend and always there in the school holidays. Sadly after only a year of owning it, Grandad, aged 54yrs, passed away, which was heartbreaking for our Nannie and us, as it was for them to enjoy together with us all, into their old age. Mam inherited the bungalow, Nannie didn't go again for a few years, but we did. It was a very special place for us. I remember before Grandad passing away he would take us for a walk on the beach, it was wooden steps down to it then, the tide was up one day and me and my sister kept going to the bottom of the steps, racing back up them when the waves splashed on the bottom steps, with warning words from Grandad which we ignored, one of those times the waves came higher and we got soaked, water in our wellies...did grandad take us back to the bungalow, not on your Nellie, he walked us all along the top dunes, then back along the road way, squelching wellies on our feet...Hahaha. People used to pass the bungalow singing `Val d ree, Val d ra, haha,loved that… As I grew I took more in of the beautiful surroundings at Fitties, the wildlife, birds, rabbits, bats, frogs, hedgehogs and foxes too, the dunes, the shells on the beach, the marshes on our walks over them. We went cockling with Dad, he would then cook them in a big pan in the bungalow and jar them up to take home for us and his friends. Loved making toast on the open fire. The bungalow had gas mantles in, then Dad put small lights in being run of a car battery, until later years on, the council put electric power points so the people could put electric in their bungalows. You couldn't stay over certain times, so we would shut the bungalow up for the winter and open it again for spring. Happy memories going to the park, the rocking horse was multiple seats, loved that. The roller skating ring was brill, my brother was so fast going around that. Remember hiring the bikes from the bike shed on the camp, riding around camp was so much fun. Everyone was always so friendly. Nights out at the Foreshore with Mam and Dad, packet of crisps, `salt and shake`, and a bottle of shandy, haha, doing roly polys on the grass. Having chips from the chippy on the way home from the camp chippy, always a que when you got there. Playing in the slots and as I got older, using the puppet machine for music, got to know all the words for `Tell Laura I love her`, Speedy gonzales`, ` Masachusettes`, lol.... Meeting special friends....Memories.... Hearing the horns from the fishing boats, gargo ships etc. Standing and looking across the sea, watching the ripples in the waves. Walking out to the Fort, being nervous thinking we would get stuck there, lol. Building boats and sandcastles, paddling and swimming in the sea, sometimes little fish around our feet, crabbing from the sand pools left by the tide going out. Fondest cherished memories with my parents and siblings, taking my own children too until sadly when we had to sell it, in 2007, after losing both my Mam and Dad. I miss my second home so much, it saddens me so, but I have my memories to hold on to. Magical and special for me. Fitties is such a wonderful place, lets hope they never spoil it.

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