Mablethorpe

Yesterday I went through a time warp and it was lovely.  Yesterday I went to Mablethorpe.

Mablethorpe is a small seaside town about forty miles from where I live and I’d never been there before and I had missed a treat.  In those forty miles I travelled back forty years.  Mablethorpe is like the seaside towns of my childhood.  There are sweet old fashioned beach huts.  There are wide open sands with a lifeguard watching to keep everyone safe.  There are children building sandcastles,  And there are donkeys!

I love donkeys.  When I was a child a visit to the seaside wasn’t complete without a ride.  If we went to the seaside for a week it was the treat to be saved until the last day (and on one occasion when it rained I had my donkey ride whilst wearing a raincoat!).  As an adult I used to visit a retreat house  which had two donkeys and I think everyone used to go and whisper their secrets to the donkeys.

But I digress.  Mablethorpe is just plain lovely.  The local primary school had brought the children to the beach to play and the teachers and quite a few helpers were sitting sunning themselves whilst keeping a very careful eye on the children who were running, playing rounders, building sandcastles and generally having a great time.  I rode my trundle truck along the front and chatted to people enjoying ice creams, fish and chips or just a quiet stroll.  And everywhere was so clean – the children cleared up after themselves and a couple of teachers did a “just in case” litter round.

It really was like the seaside of the fifties and early sixties, the seaside of my childhood.  The one thing I missed?  Fish and chips are no longer sold in newspaper!