Joan Warren

Illustration by Heather Hookey

Holidays were mostly spent in Hastings.  Sometimes, we had a chalet on the beach, near Camber Sands.

Camber Sands in those days were mostly empty.  One day I wandered away and disappeared from view. It was panic stations for a while until someone saw a dot on the beach which was me.

Camping

We had several holidays at Ford, near Arundel, where we slept in tents.  The river was very fast-flowing and Mummy had a clothes line with her 'three treasure', tied on at intervals.

Daddy liked fishing and all he caught was eels and when I was at the end of the rope, I used to remember the eels and could not get ashore, fast enough.

One holiday one of the tents caught fire and we all had to sleep on the floor of the pub that night, and we never went camping again.

Clothes from old curtains

We mostly wore clothes Mummy had made us from old curtains, chintzy ones.  We were fascinated watching Mummy with her sewing machine, handle going round very fast, with our three outfits coming out - with three seams all joined together.