Sunday, January 08, 2006

I remember Red Rovers. When I was at school you could buy them and go on any (red) London bus for a day for however much they cost (which I have forgotten).

I remember the Beehive. It was a holiday bungalow built at the end of the war out of two disused railway carriages, like most of the original properties on the estate, at Elmer Sands, near Bognor Regis. We went there for family holidays every year from when I suppose I was in my mid-teens until the late 1980s. It was run by an elderly man called Charlie, who at first used to live in the rear half of the bungalow, which was self-contained, but later on used to sleep in his garden shed during the summer so he could let out both units. During the day he would mostly sit on the bench by The Hard, which was a grass triangle outside the Beehive where children (and adults) could play, and which was also where the Elmer Sands Residents' Association used to hold its annual summer fair. He used to go to Spain for the winter. As he got older he could hardly walk and shuffled along dragging one foot behind him, but then had a hip replacement and was much more agile. Eventually we found out that he had died, but the people who lived next door bought his property and had the bungalow demolished and turned the land into a sort of memorial garden, which the last time I looked was still there.

I remember Tally Ho! (a Palmers' Brewery beer).

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