When we were children, we occasionally had family outings at weekends, and they were of two kinds. Either we’d go out to forage for seasonal produce, most often ingredients for Dad’s excellent home-made wine, or we’d be all dressed up in our Sunday best to go for a drive to a picturesque country village. Later on, after she’d passed her driving test, mum would sometimes take us on these trips, usually together with her mum, too.
One of Nan’s favourite destinations was Thetford Forest, which was about the limit in terms of time and distance from home. She’d always bring a trowel and a bag with her, I think to pick up fallen, rotting leaves to use as mulch in her garden. We’d usually have dogs with us; certainly Nan would bring her Schnauzer, Judy, and we would have Sasha (Basil Watkins), Jayne’s first dog, and later Ella, which was Mum’s little Yorkshire terrier.
We also had some trips further afield, Windsor Castle and Chessington Zoo, but I feel these were “on the way”, and incorporated into longer journeys. We’d go to St Alban’s once or twice a year to visit Thelma and Ray, Suze’s godparents and Dad’s friends (he was with Ray in the army in the Second World War). These journeys seemed interminably long to us children, and our constant question was “are we nearly there?” We tried to pass the time with games such as “I spy”, but often got bored and squabbled in the back of the car as Mum tried to keep the peace so that Dad wasn’t distracted from driving. In fact, Dad was quite good at pointing out landmarks, famous or otherwise, and telling stories about them, and as the routes became familiar, we would look out for these sights.
Closer to home, we sometimes drove out to a pretty village nearby, such as Kersey or Hartest, where we’d have a walk around. Mum and Dad would probably have a drink in the local pub and we’d have lemonade and crisps in the pub garden. Perhaps they had another reason for these outings, visiting people or looking at property, but I don’t remember it. What I do remember is being dressed up and always on our best behaviour.
More memorable, and probably more frequent, are the trips out on a Sunday afternoon to collect free food from the country lanes and hedgerows. We’d bring home elderflowers and elderberries by the sackful, and dad would use them for wine-making. In season, we collected filberts or cobnuts, a type of wild-growing hazelnut, and blackberries. We also went to pick-your-own farms occasionally, where we could go into the fields and pick fresh produce such as berries, peas, and apples. As we got older, these farms were a good source of casual work, although each crop had its own difficulties and the work was always quite demanding, so you had to work at speed to make it worthwhile.
On hot days in summer, when we were a little older, we’d go to the seaside at Frinton or Holland-on-Sea, on the Essex coast. The journey was about 30 miles from Sudbury, just under an hour in our VW camper van. We parked on grass behind the promenade and spent the day in the sunshine, sometimes down on the beach and at other times on the grass by the van, probably depending on the tide. Mum would have made a picnic of crusty rolls (from Chantry’s in North Street) filled with butter and cheese. We’d then add our crisps to the sandwich and squash them – delicious! The van had a table, a sink and a little hob to boil water for coffee and tea for the grown-ups, while we drank orange squash. Once or twice, we rented a beach hut (or perhaps Nan did); I certainly remember using a beach hut to get changed and to sit and have a picnic. Those are now hot property, and worth several thousand pounds.
Fading Memories 