Southend

Spectacular shot! Stay well!

Admired in: www.ipernity.com/group/tolerance

Best viewed safely from ground level.

In happier times I'd have gone on it.

And then not be so happy when you got off it.

It looks like[sic] anyone who does has only themselves[sic] to blame. I myself would need a [sic] bag.

(Sic) bags don't work upside down.

It depends on whether you're throwing up or down.

Then pity anyone standing underneath.

I recall a visit to Southend when I was around eight and being enchanted by an evening walk with coloured lights on the bushes. Looking at the map, I'm guessing it must have been the Cliff Gardens. I'm sure I got more of a thrill from that than all this fast stuff.

Yes, in Westcliff. I remember being enchanted in that very way at a similar age in the Festival Gardens in Battersea Park, where after dark the trees around the perimeter were lit by coloured lights.

Oh yes, I went there too! Perhaps I'm getting the two places mixed up. I think I was more enthralled by the wooded walk at Battersea than the actual rides.

Of its attractions, my favourite was the Schweppes Grotto ("Tunnel of the Four Winds"). No barf bag needed with that.

Other funfairs of which I have fond memories where those at Olympia in London and Dreamland in Margate. But all of them were very primitive and grotty in comparison with Disney World and the Florida theme parks which I discovered in the 1980's and revisited several times afterwards. Happy days, especially when they were new to me and I didn't know what to expect.

The Pleasure Beach in Blackpool and Efteling in Holland weren't bad, either.

I don't recall the rides at Battersea, apart from the Crazy House with a hall of mirrors, where the funny lighting made my dad's dental bridge show up like a big gap at the front.

I prefer life on the slow track and have fond memories of the Wild Mouse at Bognor Butlins, and a similar ride at Morecambe. The cars went relatively slowly and didn't go upside down.

I also have fond memories of a travelling fair at Stoke Park, when there was a special evening offering all rides at 1d for under-twelves. My friend and I were given two bob each to spend, but were well satisfied after thirteen rides for one and a penny. They had gentle rides like chair o'planes, with traditional fairground music.

A favourite ride of mine was the The Tunnel of Love 'River Caves' in Dreamland, Margate. It was aimed at "snoggers", and even at 12 I resented not having a girlfriend to ride with. When I met Shirley over 20 years later, I took her to Dreamland PDQ, only to find that the ride had been demolished just a year earlier. Sad.

A trip down memory lane with this book?
www.amazon.co.uk/Dreamland-Revived-Margates-Famous-Amusement/dp/0956617220

With p&p, £47.80?? (Blink). At one time, Dreamland itself could have been bought for less.