Summer Holidays

As it is summer I thought I would write about when I was a young boy and we used to go to Ayr or Saltcoats for our holidays in July.

Ayr and Saltcoats are both seaside towns on the west coast of Scotland and only 45 - 60 minutes away from Glasgow by train, but to me when I was young it was like travelling to the other side of the world, I used to go on holiday with my sisters and my mother and grandmother, my father was always working and he never liked going on holiday anyway, the peace and quiet he got when we were out of the house was his idea of paradise.

Ayr is famous for being close to Rabbie Burns birth place in Alloway, we used to visit Burn's Cottage when ever we went on holiday, when you are young you don't really think about the person (Burns) who lived in this cottage, but more about how small and dark it is, not until you get much older you realise that someone so famous was born and raised in that small place.

The Beaches in both resorts are great, although the sea is always freezing so I never wanted to go in, but making sand castles passed many an hour, then we would go to fun fair and ride on carousels and cars on rails, then there were the amusements and the one armed bandits, shoving old pennies into machines and watching in excitement as your penny helped to push a load of others out and you would win, we only had one holiday a year, and it was only 45 minutes from Glasgow, but to us it was like Spain, for that fortnight we would feel lucky, many families where we lived couldn't even afford to go to Ayr.

Now children fly to Spain with their families on a regular basis, its amazing how much holidays have changed in 30-40 years, are they happier now in Spain than I was in Ayr all those yaers ago? I doubt it, it was an adventure for me every year and I have so many happy memories from that time..