Seaside holidays

Well, at least this isn't a figment of my imagination.  We really did live in the English seaside town of Felixstowe in 1977. I have Amanda's birth certificate from a hospital in Ipswich, Suffolk to prove it.

I ran across these great old British rail posters advertising seaside holidays. They make the English coastline look like the south of France.  Felixstowe is on the windy North Sea, the beach is shingle, the water freezing and usually grey like the sky.  I never saw anyone go in beyond knee-deep, but maybe people were heartier in bygone eras when cold saltwater baths were considered healthful.

By the 1970's Felixstowe was past its golden age as a seaside resort, but it still had charms: a nice promenade, a long fishing pier, a funky amusement center with a penny arcade and kiddy rides, ice cream carts in the summer and fish n' chips stands. On rainy days (which were often) the "holidaymakers" would eat take-out wrapped in newspaper while sitting gloomily in their cars.

I loved Felixstowe, although people in London would actually laugh out loud when you said you lived there. It was considered tacky and dull. But I was in heaven pushing my beautiful new baby around town in a pram. We had a large (slightly damp) furnished basement flat right across the street from the seawall. Felixstowe had a nice high street lined with little shops, and from the railway station we could travel easily and cheaply anywhere in Great Britain.  And I suppose that is still true, except for the cheap part.

Enjoy!