A Day At The Seaside Littlehampton C 1955

A Memory of Littlehampton.

I cannot remember how old I was when we started going to the south coast of England for a Sunday trip, but it was when my father sold his Norton motorbike and bought a Golden Flash with a sidecar attached. We lived in Mitcham, Surrey, just ten miles from the centre of London. It was probably when I was about eight years old, my brother Robert was three, and my sister Valerie was twelve. Mum was the pillion passenger, Valerie sat in the front seat and my brother and I squashed in the back.
We all looked forward to our trips to the seaside as it was a special treat for us. Littlehampton was one of our favourite places as it had a sandy beach where you could build castles or imaginary boats with sand.
Mum always made the sandwiches the night before. The flask of tea was made a few minutes before we took off at what seemed like the crack of dawn. When you are young time goes very slowly, so the trip seemed to take forever. As we approached the coast the traffic jams took so long to get through that it must have seemed to have taken us at least half the day to get there. Dad managed to find parking to fit the motorbike and sidecar into the smallest places. We were so excited about seeing the sea that it was like straining at the leash, but everyone had to carry something to the beach. Apart from the food and drinks we had blankets to sit on, towels and swimming costumes, and not forgetting the trusty bucket and spades. Once everyone was loaded up, the trek started to find somewhere to sit. We all had to stick together because it was easy to be lost in the multitude of bodies and paraphernalia lying on the sand. Mum and Dad, like most parents, did not want to be too far from the water, but did not want to move when the tide came in. Littlehampton was usually packed with people, very hard to find a place if you arrived late in the day.
As soon as everything was arranged on the blanket we changed into our swimming costumes with the help of a towel held by Mum. Dad would take off his socks and shoes and roll up his trousers to his knees. If it was hot and the wind was not blowing he would have his head covered. This consisted of tying a knot in each corner of his handkerchief and placing it on his head to protect him from the sun. When the tide went out we had to walk a long way to the water, so we had a swim when it was closest to where we sat. Mum and Dad would come for a paddle up to their knees. Dad would roll his trousers up a bit more and Mum tucked her dress and petticoat into her knicker legs to keep them dry as she also paddled.
As the tide went out people started playing cricket or football on the smooth wet sand. If we were lucky there were donkeys on the beach. We patted them most of the time but once or twice I can remember going for a ride on them.
The Punch and Judy - puppet shows were a must at the beach. It was free and everyone joined in at certain times. The most popular phrase that everyone loved was "That's the way to do it!". This was when Punch would hit Judy with a large stick when she would not do as she was told by Punch.
Lunch was around noon or soon after. Mum handed out the sandwiches that were packed for each individual person. By this time they were usually a bit soggy especially if you had tomato in them. My favourites were egg and tomato seeds. This meant they were only a little bit soggy, not like if you had a whole slice of tomato in the sandwich. The lemon or orange squash drinks were usually warm. Mum and Dad were lucky that the thermos kept their tea nice and hot. We then had to wait for at least fifteen minutes before we were allowed to swim or run around on the beach. This was the adage of 'letting our lunch settle'.
If you left the beach to go for an ice cream or to the toilets you had to remember where you were by walking a straight a line as possible onto the promenade. Noting your position, you then walked along to where you wanted to go. The whole process was reversed when you went back to the beach, otherwise it would take you a long time to find your spot. Later in the afternoon we would build sandcastles decorating it with shells and seaweed. If you were lucky, you used paper flags that were left behind by other kids that had gone home early.
By the end of the day we were very tired but still had to take everything back to our motorbike and sidecar. The worst part was getting rid of the sand off our bodies and changing our clothes at the motorbike without anyone seeing you. If you did not get changed it was a very uncomfortable journey home. You were very sore from the sand rubbing against everything. The trip home was very slow till we were halfway home and cars were spreading out in different directions.
We were absolutely exhausted, but happy, and usually fell asleep before we reached home. Next day was school so we just fell into bed, glad that we had left the sand at the beach where it belongs and not in our bed.