Martin King's #100blogfest

Today's post is a guest post by Martin King.  You see, he's made it his mission to write 100 posts about his childhood and then share them on all sorts of blogs, all within the month of August.  Crazy, you say?  Or just obsessive?  Whatever the answer, he's made it so I don't have to come up with anything new until at least Sunday, and for that I must say, "Thanks, Martin."

Buckets and Spades

I travelled to Scotland this weekend to go to my brother's wedding and
along the way saw some giant wind turbines. As they spun round and
around in the strong highland winds, it took me back to when I was a
samll boy at the seaside. Do you remember those little windmills?
Those brightly coloured things that came on a white hollow, plastic
stick. And we would end up sticking them in a sandcastle we had built,
in one of its turrets.
 
But then the old memory began to start flooding back. Buckets and
spades. Quite often the bucket would be shaped like a castle so you
could fill it with sand and have an instant mini castle. But the
buckets were also great for catching fish and crabs. So you would end
up nagging for a fishing net too. You know the sort, the small net
attached to the end of a bamboo stick. And if you were unlucky and got
a badly made one, after ten minutes the net would fall off the end of
the stick.
 
Your seaside visit wouldn't be complete without a stick of rock or
maybe a sugar dummy. Or if you found somewhere with a few rides you
could maybe pickup some candyfloss or toffee apples. And what made the
seaside so brilliant is everything was so vastly different to where
you lived.
 
If you were real lucky then you might have been somewhere with paddle
boats, or better still your own lilo or rubber dingy. Then there were
those orange armbands you had to wear on your arms or those round
rings you would wear around your waste, to help keep you afloat.
 
All these things made up the fun of going to the seaside. Can you
remember the things that excited you?
 
These blogs are all about fun and sharing. Thank you for reading a
‘#100blogfest’ blog. Please follow
this link to find the next blog in the series:
http://martinkingauthor.com/blog/7094550076