The Club Trip. West Yorkshire in the 1950's.
A day at the seaside
Working Mens' clubs were just that, only men were allowed to be full members. The club trip was a day at the seaside, which was funded by the particular club of which your dad was a member,albeit the labour club, the Catholic club or the Miners welfare.
Only the children of fully paid up members were allowed to go on this wonderful outing to the seaside, and it was open to all children under the age of fifteen, bearing in mind that in those days the age for starting work was fifteen.
'The Committee' of the WMC would decide the destination each year, this could be Bridlington, Scarborough or Cleethorpes. Crisps and pop were provided FREE of charge, to be eaten and drunk in copious amounts as we bowled along.
The night before this eagerly anticipated event, we would go to bed early, having had our bath, hair washed, and clean clothes laid out at the ready for the next morning. When we were tucked up in bed my mother would then start to make the sandwiches which would serve as our mid day meal, potted meat was a favourite filling but we didn't care what it was, it could have been coal dust as we were so excited at going to see the sea.
The day started very early and the usually quiet streets would fill with noisy chatter as the parents with their children would make their way to the Working Mens' club, where this annual adventure was to begin.
I still remember the excitement of seeing the line up of buses, parked outside the Working Mens' Club, the men loading each bus with the pop and crisps. On each bus would be one 'Committee' man.
A little way into the journey it wasn?t long before the initial excitement turned into boredom, this was the signal for the pop and crisps to make an appearance,there was always a scuffle to get which flavour you liked, orange, lemon or dandelion and burdock. Fortunately the crisps at that time were plain flavoured only, with a 'screw' of dark blue paper at the bottom of the packet containing salt. Sometimes if you weren't paying attention you would end up biting into the blue paper and savouring a mouthful of salt!!.
For a while the only sounds were the noise of the engine, the slurping of drinks and the munching of crisps accompanied by the crackling of the packets.
The peace would once again be shattered, when, all the empty packets were blown up and popped.
Two thirds of the way into the journey the convoy of buses would pull up outside a cafe, we called it the half-way house, here the mothers would have a cup of tea, whilst we were issued with strict orders to get back on to the bus after a visit to the lavatories, a necessary requirement as a result of the pop we had poured down our throats.
We all boarded the bus, and after a head count to make sure that nobody had been left behind, we were off again on our last leg to the seaside. Eventually we arived at a coach park, and after receiving instructions to remember the number of our bus and where it was, we were told that it would leave promptly at six o?clock sharp.
We always made a beeline for the beach, we would paddle happily in the sea Whatever the weather, we had such fun on the sands, we usually had a donkey ride along with a sand castle building competition"
Dad would disappear for a couple of hours in the afternoon (we later learnt that he had gone for refreshments at the pub) leaving mam with us with a pot of tea fetched from the 'kiosk' on the sandsMid afternoon we would go to the amusement arcade which felt like the height of decadance to us where we would inevitably lose the few coppers, that dad had spared us, into the coffers of the slot machines.
There was one more treat to come before the day was over, fish and chips eaten out of the paper with lashings of salt and vinegar, we would eat them with our fingers whilst walking back to the coach where we would arrive back grumpy and tired, yet, not wanting the day to end.
We would often start the journey home with a sing song, "I love to go a wandering" was a favourite tune which we would sing with gusto.
One by one we would fall asleep and the next thing we knew was mother shaking us awake,
we were home.
These club trips were the only "holidays" I had as a child. As an older child I remember a few club trips to the seaside by train, this was even better than by coach as we could walk up and down the carriages pulling faces at school friends who we never ever socialised with outside of school...my how times have changed.
A busy day on Bridlington's Marine Drive (North Bay) in the early 1950s. Fun City Amusements, Bridlington's first purpose-built amusement arcade, can be seen to the left.
but I do remember waking up to the band playing in the 'ring' outside our 'new house' (actually it was a pre-fabricated bungalow hastily erected after the war for new families to live in )very early on a Sunday morning and dashing out, sometimes in my jimjams to throw a copper in the tin.
!
and there's one of Bella stood next to Pope John Paul which I insisted she pose for 
.
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well he could be working for Cirque Du Soleil or more likely "Jolly's family circus.
