Summer is coming to an end...

[Compo 10,328]

Summer is coming to an end and as I sat waiting for the computer to boot-up this morning my mind drifted back to the 1950s summers; summers that were always bright and sunny (in memory!):

We city kids used to look forward to our holidays in the 1950s.We would often only have the odd day trip by train or, if lucky, a hire-car. Much of the journey would be spent marvelling at the sheep and cows that "Lived" in the fields and all that green countryside so seldom experienced. Then the magical moment would be upon us....someone would spot THE SEA! The following hours would be as good as a blast from a bag of Cocaine as we played in the sun and sand before having to return to our dark and dismal streets for another year.

[catfan 14,793]

Summer has not visited Bulwell much this year !

[carni 10,094]

The Pleasure Park at Colwick was the nearest I got to the seaside as a kiddy until I went away with an Aunt when I was around 11yrs old. Saw plenty of cows though, while spending our days up Greeny's fields Gedling. We are like kids now when we go to the coast, it's always a big deal to be the one who says "I see the sea" first.

Out on our cycles the last two days, we have noticed a definite...Au..Aut...Autu. No i can't bring myself to say "That Word" feel in the air and scenery. I'll stick with "Late Summer" feeling for a bit longer. Just getting the cycles out again while the late summer sun is still shining.

[Guest]

Nice one Compo,those far off summers- tar bombs- some mam throwing a bucket of water over two dogs stuck arse to arse- endless cricket on the forest.This year it has been abysmal, garden furniture, put away already.. going green with mildew. Need some heat,me joints are in agony,heatings on full blast!!

[TBI 2,351]

Yes, it's been a pretty lousy summer, wet and cowd, and we didn't even need to go to the Lake District.

[Karlton 582]

I remember

the

summers at the pleasure park caftan there was always music playing one of the songs that come to mind all those years ago was twelve street rag. Happy days

[OrphanAnnie 296]

I worked a summer season at Skegness Butlins, every morning they used to play Kung Fu Fighting, Rock Your Baby and When Will I See You Again over the tannoy. I think they only had half a dozen records - 'Good Morning Campers!!!!'. As a child we only got to go to a caravan at Chapel St Leonards - thought Butlins was really posh!! ANd of course it never rained, sun shone for the whole of the six weeks school hols...........

[TBI 2,351]

Butlins was posh, until we got all sophisticated!

I remember going in a tiny caravan, dad called it the Eccles, at Golden Sands when I was about four. I knocked myself out on a cupboard, bouncing on the bed. Caused a right kerfuffle.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

It's easy to moan about the weather. But remember this. We live in a small island sandwiched between the weather systems brought about by the Atlantic Ocean and the freezing cold systems which waft in from Siberia, not to mention the varied systems from south Europe. Not forgetting the ever changing jet stream. Most of the time we seldom get really bad extremes (like huge tornados or months of crippling frost), and when we do it's something to marvel at. We have some of the most fertile green scenery in the world and despite the variations in the weather, I love it. And like everyone else here, I am a true Brit so I moan about the weather. It's what we do.

[benjamin1945 16,139]

IT must be good here,half the middle east want to come.

[mercurydancer 1,104]

It has been a good summer for me. My mrs and me visited Venice, Prague, Le Touquet and Bruges. (Also Moscow but that is one of her stops in Russia)

It seems like a dream for me now.

[mary1947 2,079]

As we all mature Summer's seem different as we look forward to other thing's. Since I've arrived at 60plus I have taken up flat green bowls!! wow I can't wait till April when the green open's then beginning of September it close's and another year has gone by.

Now I know you lot think I'm a fuddy/duddy but don't knock bowls till you have tried it. It is not a game for gentlefolk it is a game of skill and wit, shrewdly assessing what the other team are doing and which way they are going to bowl. In a bowls team in Surry a member was banned for throwing a coin at another bowler. So you see there is more to bowls than the playing of the game. So all I can say is roll on next April 2016

Come on give it a try.

[MelissaJKelly 2,120]

My Gramps used to be an avid bowls playing and won plenty of awards. I still have one from when we cleared the house out; proudly placed on my desk x

[Compo 10,328]

During the summer months one was able to visit the River Trent and, if money allowed, take a cruise on one of the many river boats moored at Trent Bridge. I was brought up in Arnold so for me it was Arnold Park. There was a lake with an island in the centre. During WWII (before my time!) boats took kids out to the island to play Castaways or Treasure Island type games. In my time it was a matter of playing by the lakeside and using the imagination to take me to the wilds of Canada as Hawkeye or some other trapper type.

In the old wartime allotments near to my house was a large patch of "Deep weeds" (Rosebay willow herb). As small boys, who could not see over the weeds, we made paths through this jungle and played jungle warfare. Of course, there was always a den for safety. No-one could be killed when in the den!

As the Rosebay went to seed in Spetember we knew that summer was closing down but that, in turn, would bring on the next big event in the calendar - Goose Fair! One is, or at least was, able to do the fair and then follow the local wakes around Basford, Arnold, Bulwell, Ilkeston, Hucknall and numerous other places before the onset of the frosts and months of cold, damp winter.

[redbowen 131]

re 14#-I can remember going on river boat trips.when did they finish?

[PeverilPeril 3,279]

And then of course there was 'Bonfire Night' when we had to start wearing a jumper.

[Blondie 1,392]

IT must be good here,half the middle east want to come.

Well said Benji !!!!!

[Blondie 1,392]

The summer's have always been the same, hot days and rainy days, you only remember the nice days when you were young because that's when you went out and did things, if it rained you stayed in played games and then forgot about it afterwards..................Summer is definitely coming to an end, I did notice that the other day, no smells of BBQ's, then I had to put a cardi on, and the nights are drawing in too cos I had to put the lamps on earlier.................In a few weeks time we will get the smell of Autumn and the Goose Fair, then Hallowean, Bonfire Night and the next thing the shops will be stocking up on pressies, Christmas lights will be on and everybody will have Yuletide Fever.......The same thing happens every year................

[Guest]

Now the dark nights are drawing in,it gets magnified out in the country. The heating goes on,curtains drawn,plenty of stews and spuds!! Stuffing one my marrows for dinner and mashing me own spuds..with a little wine obviously.

[FLY2 10,108]

Hang on Ian, that's a bit saucy for daylight hours. LOL

[MargieH 7,599]

#14. My mum took me on a river boat trip to Radcliffe on Trent once. I remember there was a path leading up to a park when you got off the boat. I seem to remember coming back on a train?

[Guest]

Sorry Fly,must keep it clean!!

[TBI 2,351]

#14. My mum took me on a river boat trip to Radcliffe on Trent once. I remember there was a path leading up to a park when you got off the boat. I seem to remember coming back on a train?

Yes Margie, you'd have got off the boat at Radcliffe, by what is now a mobile home park, walked up the cliff path the Rockley Memorial Park at the top. The railway station is a short walk away. All still there today.

[TBI 2,351]

#23

Looks like the good old 'Pride of the Yare', if I'm not mistaken.

BTW, you know summer's nearly over when the Christmas cards and wrapping start appearing in the shops.

[LizzieM 9,507]

Saw Christmas cards for sale in Arnold about 2 weeks ago. Crikey, don't they realise the years fly by too quickly as it is, without making us think about Christmas every 8 months