The shed smells like shit.

Cherry

By Mentalelf

Sat, 13 Jan 2024
  • 463 reads
6 comments
 

As a child my parents took me to Butlins holiday camp, maybe a few will see this, will have seen this.

The shed smells of shit

Its not a shed its a chalet
Its boxed happiness
Its freedom
From desolation
Its a summery
Destination
With a swimming pool

Full of polio

Cold shivering 
skinny kid

Its the place
We leap
Like national sheep
Laughing in unison
Drunken fornication
Shimmering castigation
We were all happy
Happy happy happy
To crowd together
Whatever the weather
Cause it was meant
As social sophistication
For a working mans
Nation

Yer dads having a pint
You can have a coke
Mums having a cuppa 
While she has a smoke

Parades and dances
Holiday romances
Tom fools prances
Late to bed
After those in red 
With painted smiles
Said welcome
And handed us 
a badge from hell

What else to say
I couldn’t sleep
The bed was different
And I didn’t 
like the smell.

Certificate 15
Non-fiction
Autobiographical
Biography

Comments

Submitted by Turlough on

I've only ever been to a Butlin's camp as a day patient. It was the one in Pwllheli in North Wales about twenty-five years ago. It had an amazing swimming pool with slides and a wave machine and all that malarkey which my kids loved, but they closed it at five o'clock in the afternoon. Apparently they did that because they wanted everyone to move into the bars where they would spend lots of money. Billy Butlin doesn't earn so much when his guests are sitting round the pool eating ice creams and drinking cups of tea. 

Your poem covers it very well.

Turlough

Submitted by Mentalelf on

Kia Ora, Thanks for reading this and your kind comment. I suppose things changed over the years, I was there  over forty years ago. And... probably as a parent your viewpoint is different to that of a child. We didn't have much when I was young so it was probably quite a nice holiday for my parents. I think your quite correct regarding the finances of Butlins. Maybe my poem is unkind? But it's my recolections. I've also earned large ammounts of money at times so my comparisons to my later experiences are definately skewed. Also I was born in New Zealand and we came back from the sub tropical beauty i'd grown up with is a hard comparison. Thank. you again. Phil. Kia Kaha.

Kia Kaha (Maori .... "stay strong")

Submitted by Turlough on

Holiday camps, although not my cup of tea, were perfect places for people who didn't have much money to go to for a holiday and a bit of fresh air outside of the industrial towns and cities. My mother went with her friend to the Butlin's in Skegness in the early 1950s not long after it had first opened. She spoke of it with fond memories. So I wouldn't knock them, though I do feel that by the 1990s their eye was more on their profit margins than on customer satisfaction.

I think your poem may be unkind if we're looking at holiday camps in their early days but for later years / decades you've got it spot on. 

Turlough

Submitted by Mentalelf on

Thanks for taking the time to read this Turlough, I think there was a place for Butlins but I have never seen it as an "escape" for ordinary people, that came with package holidays to Spain in my humble opinion. Then people felt truely released from drudgery, although of course many went and just wanted thier fish and chips and a pint, it opened eye's. They still go abroad want want to recreate Britain in a foriegn land. 

I know Skegness is still going strong. I have been lucky sometimes unlucky to travel to about sixty different countries and so my view of going to somewhere up the road a bit to drink with new neighbours isn't my perception of "getting away". I suppose however that to many it was getting away and good old Billy did provide that for many.

I suppose my poem wasn't a full on criticism of Butlins, it served a purpose.... but it was my perception and kids did get polio in his pools in the early days. My parents do have a different viewpoint... but I was sent to bed when they went to the big room to drink and watch people perform. 

Ofcourse Butlins like any other buisness was created to make money and he had a target audience. If you were poor as we were then i'm sure it gave "something" a little different, 

But my recollections of the "chalet" and the badge all kids were handed by a red coat are true as I recall. The first time my parents had enough to take us on a package holiday to Spain I recall as totally amazing, people speaking different languages, different food, wonderful sun, and of course the magic of getting on a plane!!!! Billy could offer none of that and price wise comparisons were also there.

I also know people who have a rented caravan at a beach spot somewhere and are very satisfied. And they are all decendants of Billy Butlins. I won't knock that or them. In fact I had one of those magic moments when an ex had a son working as bar manager at such a camp site and as we propped up the bar visiting him I overheard two women, middle aged talking. One said "what would you do if you won the big one" (Lottery). Her companion thought about it and said with no irony "I suppose i'd get decking all the way around my caravan"! 

 

Kia Kaha (Maori .... "stay strong")

Submitted by celticman on

Butlins were old millitary bases. I worked for a season on the shows in Ayr, Butlins. Great for people with families as you don't have to give the kids hundreds of pounds to go and enjoy themselves. My mate Stevie used to go to Skegness. Wheel the booze in at night hidden under the sleeping child trick. Booze is very expensive. They have a monopoly and like to leave you skint. Staff were paid on Tuesday, so they could get completely pissed, not annoy the campers, and be skint for the end of the week, when most campers splurged out before they left. 

 

Submitted by Mentalelf on

Thanks for taking the time to read this Celtic, I was unaware of the military connection, Skegness is still going strong, in fact i've had great fun on specialist "biker" weekends. But that was as much about bikes as about where we slept.

It's obvious or it should be that a captive audience, having no where else to socialise would be set up to spend... of corse Butlins closed down a lot as peole started caravan sites, with rented caravans, little difference really. But a buisness opportunity to offer to people who go for many reasons, fear of flying, fear of somewhere foriegn all that. But people zap off on package holidays to Spain and try to recreate Britain in a foriegn land. Sad really but no criticism here. 

My opinion is skewed as i've visited about sixty or so countries and have always searched out the local culture and loved it. At the end of the day if your happy doing it then who am I to criticise? I don't. 

Kia Kaha (Maori .... "stay strong")