Caravans in the 70s

We had a caravan when the children were little and it was a joy. We could pop off for weekends away when the sun was out, as well as longer holidays. We used to go to summer schools and that was made financially possible by going as day patrons and staying in the caravan on a nearby site.

We had such fun with our caravan - I loved the fact that you did not have to pack cases, but you just bunged everything in the van. I also liked the fact that it made my OH drive slower! The children loved "playing house" in it - and it was in use all year round in the garden as their playhouse.

We had to sell it to pay for a new boiler when that failed one year - I was so very sad to see it go!

We used to stay in static caravans in the sixties and seventies and had some wonderful holidays except for the flies. Flies seemed to be attracted to and then get trapped in caravans. My dad used to hang fly strips from the ceiling. These were sticky strips that hung down. The flies were attracted to them and stuck when they landed. I still have nightmares about the time I walked into one and it got stuck in my hair.

PS We are still using some of our 70s crockery!! And it appears now and again when I look through my DDs' cupboards - they took some of it to uni and have kept it ever since.

I loved caravan holidays; Clevedon when I was a child and then Cornwall with the children. It was like camping in comfort. Oh the smell of the calor glass lights. I lived in a caravan in my Cornish hippy days [that wasn't such fun cause it was early spring and very cold]. Never used to get headaches [which I was prone to] when I was in a caravn; reckoned itwas the fresh air.

Treated our boat as a floating caravan.

We live in a Park Home - a very up-market caravan on a site specially for the older generation. It is really very comfortable, all mod-cons, and easy to keep clean. We have 'close' neighbours, but have a nice spacious garden round our home, and are lucky enough to have a garage. Having been a caravanner when the children were young, and enjoyed the freedom those holidays gave us, it sometimes feels as if we are on permanent holiday, which we are of course, having been retired, but it is somehow different from living in a brick built home. My daughter always preferred camping to caravanning - loved the sound of the rain on the canvas!

We`ve never had a motorhome, they look lovely, but never fancied having one. We had a touring caravan from 1979 till 1985, always regretted getting rid of it, but got another in 2000 and changed it in 2007, and as my profile shows, we`ve still got it, and love it, but how long we`ll be able to carry on with it we don`t know, but hopefully a while longer, now that we`ve had a remote control mover fitted, cuts out all the pushing ad shoving on arrival onsite. We tend to go mainly to Scotland or Cornwall, with the occasional foray into N.Devon, N.Wales and Northumberland.

PS Mishap, I also welcome the fact that my husband drives more carefully when towing!

Some of that upholstery looks dreadfully familiar! We bought a second hand caravan at the end of the 70s. I replaced the curtains, though they were still orange and brown. The caravan was blue and white with a matching awning which was a godsend. We lived in Norfolk and used to take the van down to Suffolk for long weekends staying in a five-van site at one of the moated farmhouses of the Deben Valley. We also took bikes and enjoyed riding round the gently rolling countryside. Some of our best holidays were in Wales, and the worst - a wet and miserable week at St Davids.

janthea, we have mid-century plates on our dining room (brick) wall with one just like that in the middle.

The caravans pictured must have been top of the range as the one we had when the children where small had no inside loo,we had a toilet tent fixed next to the van,I hated it from the word go all the putting the beds etc away before eating no room to swing a cat (and I like cats) I used to call ours "the biscuit tin" as that is what it reminded me of.We swapped it for a trailer tent which had so much more room for some reason and we went on to many a happy trip all over the Country and France.

Oh I have always adored caravans . Sadly had to give ours up in 2011 which broke my heart. There is something about the rain beating down on a caravan roof.

We had a Sprite Musketeer in the seventies for about ten years while the children were growing up. It had an enormous awning, which made an enormous difference with 3 kids and a dog, bucket toilet, foot pump cold water tap and no heating. Loved it.

Last year we bought an Abbey Vogue. Two birth. Hot and cold running water, warm air heating, flush cassette toilet, radio/cd player, TV aerial and best of all a mover. We need a training course to master the electrics especially the electric pump. But it's so comfy. Love it.

I made the mistake of introducing DH to holiday cottages, and now he won't go back to towing.

I would like one of the new caravans where the bedroom is separate and the bed always in position.

Oh yes. A mover would be good.

We had a caravan once, in the 70s, and all it taught me was how much I hated it. We were in a field once (some sort of campsite) and it was pouring with rain; all three children were with us; we had little money. And I said "I have a four bedroom, centrally heated quarter, with a washing machine, a cooker, a freezer full of food, a swimming pool nearby in the camp, and a TV. What the am I doing here?"

It was very useful as a study, though.

Nfk - that's the one - Sprite Musketeer - that we had. Very basic, but better shelter and less likely to be flooded than a tent.

Yes j07, the mover is great, we couldn`t manage without it now. Till we had it fitted, nearly 2 years ago, we were seriously thinking of selling up, as manoeuvring it about was getting too much for us.
NfkDumpling, our first one was a Sprite Muskateer, very roomy when you`ve got 5 kids on the go. We`ve now got a Swift Silhouette Diamond, quite old, but in good nick, it`ll do us till we have to throw in the towel.
When we first moved across the country from Gtr. Manchester to here in Boston, we still hadn`t sold our house, so bought what was really our first caravan to live in till the house was sold, thinking maybe 3 months. Hah!!! 15 months later, there we still were, 2 of us, 5 children aged from 5 to 13, and a very patient cat called Patch, all squeezed into a 12` long, 6`6" wide caravan, no heating, the water tap 100 yards away, toilets and washing facilities 200 yards away, and it was the very bad winter between 1977 and 78, very deep snow, the year that Skegness pier blew away. On days that we (I) didn`t feel like trudging to the tap for water, we`d scoop snow from outside the door and melt it for the kettle and for boiling veggies! We survived, but the caravan had had it, and no way could I ever do it again.