Shit and sugar

Shit and sugar

 

August 1971

In jumpers and beachwear

With a spade each

On a windy beach

Near Weston Super Mare

My brother Ian and I

In front of mum’s deckchair

Filled and emptied pails of sand

Made castles here and there

 

What’ve we got to eat mum?

I asked her hungrily

As the wind blew

Rain clouds drew

And spray came off the sea

Shit and sugar she replied

And laughing gleefully

I grabbed a sandy sandwich  

And scoffed it eagerly

 

The last day on the pier

We went on every ride

Paid a call

To the mirrored hall

The helter skelter slide

The ghost train the dodgems

And Ian puked beside

The waltzers after eating

Ice cream and doughnuts fried

 

We walked along the seafront

With bags of soggy chips

As seagulls scrounged

Wasps buzzed around

Overflowing skips

I listened to the waves

Licked sea salt off chapped lips

Felt the evening chill

Watched the lights of distant ships

 

We got back after dark

I dreamed that night in bed

Of a slice of ham

(Or was it spam?)

With thin cut buttered bread

I asked mum for a sandwich

And she in anger said

There’s only shit and sugar

So I ate that instead 

 

Next morning in the chalet

I awoke in sorrow

Two weeks had passed

They went too fast

And long before tomorrow

We’d be back in Chadwell Heath

With school too soon to follow

Leaving Pontins was to me

A bitter pill to swallow

 

We got home the same day

And eventually

That holiday

Was faraway

A distant memory

Of shit sugar buckets spades

Deckchairs by the sea

Rides slides doughnuts chips

Mum dad Ian and me

 

It was a rainy fortnight

Grey windy not much sun

Yet I still laugh

At the photograph

Of us two having fun

And the rain didn’t matter

When all’s said and done

We were happy kids indeed

In August ‘71