I’m still not feeling like writing an awful lot, this case of Juls got the funk is lasting a little longer than normal. Hopefully normal service will resume shortly. I figured it would be bad if I missed my own challenge though, so here goes.

This week Deborah gave Mama and I the theme of Memories of a Childhood Vacation. When we were younger my sister and I were lucky enough to go on many vacations, some I remember bits of, some not so much. I classed vacation as the two summer months off school and skipped out with delight on the last day knowing there was no more learning for at least seven weeks.

I have many memories of summer vacations riding around in the back of trailers perilously stacked with bales of hay, hanging off the back of a tractor which a baler munching along behind me, playing tennis on the open air courts or walking 5 minutes down the road and spending the day on the beach.

Some of the best memories I have are when my Dad used to give us old tubes from tractor tyres. Sometimes it would be the small ones, sometimes the huge ones from the back. I am sure we looked a funny sight rolling them all the way down to the seafront.

The small ones were perfect for single sailing, the big ones held about four of us. Minimum effort was required as you could just lie back and drift at your leisure watching the world go by.

However if you got to carried away with your daydreaming, there was always a chance that you would float towards the rocks. I was told stories of there being rats and monsters there, hanging around the rubble that used to be an old Castle. One day on drifting too far I put my legs down to kick myself back to shore, and felt something wrap around them. I believe I started squealing like a banshee thinking I was going to be dragged below the surface to a watery grave, before actually having the sense to look down and realise it was seaweed, not the ten thousand tentacled octopus of my imagination.

When I made it to shore I rolled that tyre home as fast as my now knackered little legs would carry me. I gave myself such a fright, first with the seaweed and then thinking about the possibility of drifting out to sea, that I believe that was my last adventure on the tyre! But it was fun all the same, especially looking back on it now, from the safety of my chair :)

There is still today if you would like to join in with this challenege. To see who already has, check out the Cartoon Craziness Page!