Figure 1.-- Here we are again in 1934. We are outside the house we rented for the summer holiday at Holland on Sea. This is a sea side resort near Clacton in Essex. My father used to join us for a week and then go back to London to continue his dental surgery. He would come and collect us in the car at the end. This was the pattern each summer. My father never took more than a week off.

Our summer vacation was a real family tradition. Every Summer when Graham amnd I were liitle we spent the summer holiday at beach resorts. We usually rented a house at Holland on Sea. This is a sea side resort near Clacton in Essex. My father used to join us for a week and then go back to London to continue his dental surgery. He would come and collect us in the car at the end. This was the pattern each summer. My father never took more than a week off. We didn't always go to Holland on Sea. Sometimes, especially later we used to go to Thanet in Kent. I am sorting through the family photos of us on the beach. I have some of each year up until the war.

1934

Here we are again in 1934 (figure 1). We are outside the house we rented for the summer holiday at Holland on Sea. This is a sea side resort near Clacton in Essex. We loved these holidays as there were great places to play, both on the beach and in the open places all around. We didn't swim, but we love to paddlle in the water and build sand castles. The tide where we went went way out leacing a vast expanse pf beach. This is called The Wash in England.

1935

Unlike today we didn't often change into play clothes when returning from school. We tended to wear our school clothes or some of them even in holiday. Here the three of us sit with my maternal grandmother on the step of our beach hut. Americans would probably call it a cabin. It meant that we were right their on the beach all summer. We are more casual, but I am wearing my school socks. Note my brother holding a folded bellows camera. Our little sister took a bit of rough handling from us. I think at that age I rather looked on her as a toy to play with.