Butlins

The last time I went to Butlins would have been in the late 1960's I know I was very young but I do remember a fair bit about it, albeit all in sepia. Where do I start? OK, the fairground, cable cars, the monorail, a bar called the Beachcomber that had bamboo all over the place and looked very exotic, fountains at either end of the outdoor pool where the big kids used to stand at the top and make the water spray around, being able to have something to eat and watch people's legs swimming in the pool through glass windows to it, Red Coats, two tiered chalets, litter bins shaped like pigs that sucked in your rubbish, 'baby crying in chalet 42' announcements, now do I remember that or was I that baby? Oh and my Auntie Betty finding a caterpillar in her salad, happy memories from a very early age. 

Still remembering it all 50 odd years later sold it to me when Mrs Nott suggested that we book into Butlins Minehead this year, the same one, and take our two, Betsy aged seven and Monty nearly three. If it made that impression me, it was evidently value for the pounds shillings and pence when I was little.  Any thoughts of it being a budget holiday in 2022 were soon dispelled on investigation, but we just took a deep breath and booked anyway. 

August and our break was on us. There were apps to download and events to book, all very modern. I wasn't expecting much of it to look the Butlins Minehead I remember from my very early days, but there was something of that ambiance. I was chuffed to see most of the original chalets were still there in use too which gave me the really warm glow you get when you see something that's only been a happy memory in your mind's eye for so long. There was no monorail, cable cars or fountains though. Instead there was a huge waterpark with fearsome looking slides and loads of huge air conditioned venues which hosted indoor entertainment from around 9am. The redcoats looked very young, but I suppose they would.  Needless to say, the kids were overwhelmed as we packed in as much as possible. Mum and Dad had a great time too arriving home needing a holiday in the pre-kids sense of the word. It was a wonderful time where hopefully we'd made some life-long happy memories for the kids, just as Butlins Minehead did for me too when it was back in black and white. 

The other overriding memory for me, but hopefully not the kids, was the amount of very large people holidaying. That was the same first impression as my first and only visit to Las Vegas in 2002, I'd never seen so many really overweight people before. Now, I look at myself in the mirror and cringe, I could do with toning up and losing some weight so can't fat shame, But, it was shocking, young and old, for want of a better word, fat. Fat and tucking into burgers and full fat coke, queuing in the morning, one chap in just pyjama bottoms buying energy drinks and fags, others at Costa having Lattes with syrup in to wash down their pastries, thinking nothing of 10am pints and then making sure they had their microwave burgers, crisps and chocolate bars in stock before the supermarket closed at 10pm. It honestly was a jaw dropping that there were so many of them, it was like an epidemic.  I'm guessing that being so overweight  is so normal these days that a whole swathe of the population just don't care any more. It must cost the NHS an absolute fortune, if those people aren't ill now, it's a ticking timebomb.

Butlins has inspired me again.

I'm hitting the exercise bike and easing up on the snacks before my next trip to Butlins, starting now, I hope this isn't tempting fate, but at my age I need to keep fit to see my young kids grow up. I don't suppose the people that I've written about set out to become how that have, it's a slippery slope I'm not going down, just like the the most terrifying looking slide in the water park.

I'm told that Martin Pipe's dad Dave had a betting shop on site at Minehead Butlins back in the day, there's no betting shop there now, though they did sell the Racing Post. And on that tenuous link, my blogs on this site are sponsored by Bet Goodwin, who offer all sorts of offers including BOG Best Odds guaranteed, click on the banner to open an account, download their app and get a free bet if you lose.

Simon Nott