The Holiday

By Eileen Fowler

My name is Eileen Fowler and I have lived in Newcastle for most of my 63 years. I lived in a typical terraced street, a bit of a garden front and back, surrounded by rows and rows of the same terraced streets.

My parents lived in the same street for nearly forty years but in three different houses. We lived at No.4, moved across the road to No.3 as it had an extra room to fit four children into. My parents moved when we were grown up but after about twelve months they went back to the same street, to No.2.

Alas I digress. This is about my first holiday.

When I was 8 or 9 I went to a magical place called Seahouses and stayed in a caravan with my parents and three brothers. It was a fantastic place, golden beaches, countryside, so different from where I lived. I made a friend, Avis, on my first day and we went shell picking every morning under that hot sun until I had a fine collection. Sadly, I left them under the caravan when our holiday was over.

This wonderful holiday gave me such a love of beaches and countryside which has never left me. It was another seven or eight years before I had my second holiday but I never forgot my first two weeks in Paradise.