When I awoke this morning little did I know I'd take myself back nearly fifty years to 1976. I was twelve and this was the famous hot summer. We were on holiday for two weeks at the height of the inferno, staying at the Studland Dene Hotel. We'd stayed in 1975 and liked it so much dad booked us in for a fortnight. Due to the beach perfect weather it was a fortnight of waking up, breakfast, head to the beach, stay there until tea time, return to the hotel, interact with the guests, carpet bowls I recall were popular with the adults, pool and messing about for us children, bed around midnight and repeat.
I've not been back to this beach since then and we were not planning to walk the 3.7miles from Canford Cliffs to Bournemouth pier either, but we did, stopping at the newly opened Rockwater cafe at Branksome Chine. It's different to how I remember it, more like the cafe in the middle image here, but in 1976 I would walk along the beach to get my bottle (glass bottle then) of Pepsi, probably an ice cream too. Some lovely carefree days on Bournemouth beach. My father often said it was the most relaxing holiday he'd had.
Memories can be good or bad and this one is a good memory. On that holiday I met a German boy staying in the hotel with his parents, Hans Neigerbal who lived in Lauterecken. He was about my age and after the holiday we wrote pen pal letters for a while before it fizzled out. I often wonder what became of him, his life etcetera. I wonder whether he ever thinks of me. We're both nearly pensioners now. A long time ago.
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