Holiday Memories

In 1929 my father and his parents went to the seaside at Folkestone for their holiday.
This photograph shows his family arriving by taxi at an hotel in Folkestone.

They had travelled from London to Folkestone by train, then a taxi had taken them to the hotel, which you can see in the background of this picture.

Look carefully at the picture. What are all the people wearing?
How is this car different from those of today?
This is the first car that my father owned.

Not many of the population had cars at that time so people did not have to take a driving test before they were allowed to drive alone on the roads. The car was started by turning a large cranking handle at the front of the car. When the engine had started the driver took out the cranking handle, climbed into the car and drove away. The headlight is near the driver so it can be turned on and off by the driver.

For my holidays we went to stay with my grandmother in the Lake District in the North of England, we travelled by car. It was a very long journey as there were no motorways. We used to take a picnic lunch and tea as there were no roadside cafeterias.
My Grandmother's house was in the country. The milk was delivered in milk churns on a tractor and if we were lucky children, the farmer would give us a ride back to the farm on the tractor.
On Tuesdays and Fridays a lorry came that was a mobile grocer and we were allowed to spend two old pennies on sweets after the adults had done their food shopping! To amuse ourselves while mum washed our clothes by hand, did the cooking and housework, we would play in the garden or in the fields near the house. On a nice day we would go out in the afternoon taking a picnic tea and have a paddle in either a lake or the sea. It was a squash in the car as there would sometimes be seven of us, one of my cousins and I usually had to sit on our mothers' laps as we were the youngest.
In 1956 we had this car. We called it MUCK.
Can you see why?

Look at my brother's and my clothes.
Do you think they look very different from what you wear?

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