Like most middle-aged folks I can easily be launched on a flood of reminiscence.

I hold affectionate memories for the late 50’s when a family week in a caravan at Skegness was a much anticipated treat. When joy was to be found in a cod, chops and mushy pea lunch at a seafront café followed by a sixpenny ice cream cornet (topped with ‘jungle juice’, of course!). Searching with Dad amongst the rock-pools for starfish and crabs. Mum, in her home-sewn flowered sun-top, sitting in a deck chair reading Women’s Own. Punch & Judy on the sands ….. end of the pier shows ….. and for a penny, ‘What the Butler Saw’!.

At Butlin’s Gaiety Theatre, then the largest air-conditioned theatre in Europe, the star ‘turns’ were diverse and entertaining in their talent. Tommy Trinder (‘you lucky people’), Shirley Abecair (the Zither Girl), a young Roy Hudd making us all laugh and a younger still Roy Castle supporting Jimmy James and Eli Woods in their classic comedy routine (‘guess what I’ve got in this box?). Jimmy Wheeler (‘hi, hi, that’s yer lot’), Ruby Murray (always sounded like she had a cold!), Ronnie Hilton (‘Tulips from Amsterdam’), Monsieur Eddie Gray and the Crazy Gang (fabulous!) and Marian Ryan whom my Dad, like all Dads then, had the ‘hots’ for.

And the weird and wonderful assortment of speciality acts that were the true embodiment of live variety theatre: Boganny’s Lunatic Bakers, tumblers who jumped in and out of ovens. Enoch the ‘Manfish’ who sat in a tank of water, placed a pail over his head and sang arias. Herman the Dancing Skeleton. Pat Rooney, the Waltzing Clog Dancer. Martha Farra, the female Apollo, who would tear telephone directories in half (years later I discovered how that was done). It was an era rich in eccentric and colourful speciality acts ….. contortionists, hypnotists, escapologists, mind readers, performing dogs, sword swallowers (have you even wondered why the first one did it!) … and so on …

Life was simple then, unsophisticated and fun and folk were seemingly happy. Like life here in the Limousin, the pace was unhurried and people took time out to chat. With technological progress allied to greater personal wealth, I question whether we’ve lost something along the way!