Life in the early 50's

My first visit was with my parents when I was very young in the early 1950's. On the ferry from Portsmouth and train to Sandown where we stayed in a little caravan at Fort Caravan Site. The end window of the caravan had been broken and we were greeted by a cow from the adjoining field poking her head through that window. Fortunately the window was replaced that afternoon and Daisy did not peep through again during our stay. A coach tour visiting Whippingham, Godshill and some of the coast. Next time was with my fiancee and her parents in the 1960's. A hotel in Shanklin and tours in my little Morris Minor convertible. Of course we visited most of the Island and in taht year "found" St. Helens, a village we fell in love with and subsequently visited for many consecutive years before the rented house was sold and we transferred to Bembridge. Our three children have had a holiday every year of their lives on the Island and even now, as adults, join us in the large house in Bembridge every year. For several years my wife stayed with her guides and I took our church choir to Winchester House near Shanklin so our love of the Island was shared with a great number of young people also. Memories of our very overloaded minibus negotiating the steep hills in and out of Ventnor with screams of "the brakes!". Time on Shanklin and Ventor piers.

Wonderful times at Blackgang Chine and a special visit early in the year when there had been a massive slip. The damage during the great hurricane when we were staying on the Island - chimneys gone and trees blocking the lovely undercliff road. The undercliff road slip, how tragic for the residents. Visits to the wax museum, playing the organ at Whippingham Church, and caravan stays at Beaper Farm, getting stuck in the clay when climbing down to Blackgang beach - very scary - my sons boots are still down there somewhere. Encountering naturists on another visit to that beach- when we did not get stuck- and walked along from Rocken End right round to Whale Chine, and chatting to a lovely gentleman living in a caravan on the old Blackgang road opposite where his house had been until it slipped. Lovely ice creams from Chale farm. Oh what a fantastic Island and how grateful we are for our very many memories of happy holidays, often several times a year. Dennis Moor