To my parents
for deciding that holiday camps
were perfect for our family and encouraging us
to join in – with everything!
Thank you x
Contents
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Acknowledgements
Author’s Note: My Holiday Camp Memories
The Woolworths Girls
Christmas at Woolworth
Q&A with Elaine Everest
Prologue
Molly Missons gazed around in awe. So this was Butlins. Whitewashed buildings, bordered by rhododendrons, gave a cheerful feeling to a world still recovering from six years of war. The Skegness holiday camp covered a vast area, much larger than Molly had expected.
If it were not for a helpful bus conductor, she’d have alighted far too early, when first spotting row upon row of flags fluttering in the early May sunshine. As it was, the bus followed the boundaries of the camp and pulled up at the visitor entrance. The conductor helped her from the vehicle, passing her suitcase down from the steep step. With a cheery call of ‘Hi-de-hi!’, he waved goodbye.
Up ahead, she could see a long white building with the words ‘Our true intent is all for your delight’ emblazoned on the front wall for everyone to view. She thought it was a genuine welcome. Neat borders of shrubs and what looked like a children’s play area were extremely inviting to this first-time visitor. What was missing were people. She couldn’t see a single one. Molly knew the start of the holiday season was still days away, but surely there should be staff around the place? She pulled a letter from her coat pocket and checked the words. Yes, she had arrived on the right day, albeit several hours early. Such were the trains from Kent that if she’d caught the only other train from her connection in London to Lincolnshire, Molly would have arrived two hours late for her new job and not made a good impression.
But where was she to go? Molly chewed her lip and looked around in bewilderment, hoping someone would come to her rescue.
‘You look lost, m’dear,’ a gruff voice called out from behind her.
She jumped, not expecting her wishes to be answered so soon. Spinning round, Molly spotted an elderly man peering through a hatch in the window of a military-style gatehouse at the side of the road.
‘Yes, I am a little,’ she called back. ‘I know I’m in the right place, but I have no idea where to go or what to do next.’ Molly felt her chin wobble slightly. It had been a long journey into the unknown. If only she was at home once more, chatting with her mum in the kitchen while they prepared the evening meal. Sadly, that was never going to happen, however much she wished. It was a foolhardy idea to come to Butlins. It had been her best friend, Freda, who’d suggested applying for a job at the newly opened holiday camp. Despite fighting it back, a tear splashed onto her cheek.
‘There, there, missy – there’s no need for tears. Just you get yourself in here and I’ll sort things out for you or my name’s not Spud Jenkins. You can leave your suitcase out there. It won’t come to any trouble.’
Molly sat on the wooden chair Spud nudged towards her. ‘I’m so sorry. It’s been a long journey. I’m just tired. Once I know where I have to report, I’m sure I’ll feel better.’
Spud watched her thoughtfully as he struck a match over a single gas ring, which came to life with a loud pop. Shaking a battered kettle to check it contained enough water, he placed it onto the now flickering flame. ‘I take it this is your first visit to Butlins?’
Molly nodded as she took a handkerchief from her handbag and wiped her eyes. ‘Yes, it is. You must think I’m so silly.’
‘Not for one minute. You’d be surprised how many times I’ve been a shoulder to cry on. Boyfriend troubles, homesickness . . . I’ve heard it all in here.’
Molly looked around Spud’s domain. With windows on three sides, there wasn’t much in the way of privacy, but then she supposed he needed to see who was coming and going from the camp. ‘Do you work in here all the time?’
‘Ever since the governor started building the camp back in 1935.’ He glanced proudly at a framed photograph on his desk. ‘The Royal Navy even let me stay on for the duration to do odd jobs and the like. I was no good to man or beast with this leg.’ He tapped his left leg. ‘Shrapnel from the First War,’ he announced proudly. ‘The governor put in a good word for me.’
‘The governor?’ Molly queried, peering more closely at the two figures in the photograph. ‘Is that Billy Butlin?’ She recalled seeing his face on posters when she had her interview.
‘The one and only. He’s a good sort is the governor. He takes care of his employees as well as the campers.’
Molly could see that the elderly man was proud of his boss. ‘Will he visit the camp this summer, do you think?’
Spud took two chipped cups from hooks on the wall, close to where the kettle was starting to boil, and measured Camp coffee into each, followed by a generous spoonful of sugar. ‘I don’t see why not. He always used to pop in to see how things were going and to meet the punters. That was before we closed for the duration. He likes to meet the new staff as well. A popular man, but he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. I suppose you’d say he’s charismatic. Yes, that’s the word, charismatic.’
‘I don’t know much about Mr Butlin. I’ve been concentrating more on the job I have to do – and working out how to get here.’ She fell silent as she thought of her home and the friends she’d left behind.
Spud could see the young woman was close to tears again. ‘Now, you tell me what job you’ve been signed up for. You’ve got the looks of a dancer. Am I right? Or perhaps you’re the new Punch and Judy man?’
Molly giggled. ‘I’m not much of a dancer, but Punch and Judy sounds fun.’
Spud grinned back. She was a pretty little thing when she wasn’t looking so sad. He’d always had a soft spot for green-eyed girls with chestnut curls. ‘That’s the way to do it!’ he said in a squeaky voice, and they both burst out laughing.
‘I’m not really skilled at anything much, but I used to help my mum with the Brownies and Girl Guides until I joined the Women’s Land Army. I helped her after returning home as well. When I had my interview with Butlins, they thought I’d be able to assist with the children.’
‘So you’re Miss Molly Missons who is going to be a Butlins auntie?’
‘How did you know that?’ Molly gasped, but then saw Spud was looking towards a list on a clipboard hanging near the door.
Spud tapped the side of his nose and winked. ‘Not much gets past me,’ he said. ‘I reckon you’ll be run off your feet once all those nippers arrive with their parents. They’ll keep you busy.’
‘I’m sure I will, but I’m not convinced I’m right for the job. I’ve had no formal training or anything.’
Spud pointed to the photograph. ‘Do you think the governor did when he opened this camp in 1936? Why, he was a showman. He’d never owned a big holiday camp like this. This was the first. He had an idea and went along with it. He learned what was wanted and came up with the goods.’
Molly frowned. ‘A showman?’
‘Travelling fairs, funfairs. You’ve seen them, haven’t you?’
She nodded. ‘Oh yes. I always visited the travelling fair when it came to Erith Recreation Ground, near my home. It was magical.’
<
br /> Spud smiled as her face lit up. ‘There you go, then. Chances are the governor knew them. He knows all the showmen. It’s a close community. He had hoopla stalls before he ran his own fairgrounds. He even brought the first dodgems into the country.’
Molly did like the elderly man with the big smile. Knowing Spud would be on duty by the main entrance to the camp meant she could pop in and speak to him from time to time. He seemed to sense she was afraid and alone.
‘Now, you drink your coffee and I’ll walk you up to the staff office. They’ll soon take care of you. By tomorrow you’ll have made some friends and it’ll feel as though Butlins has been your home forever.’
Molly sipped the hot coffee generously enriched with evaporated milk, which Spud had poured from a tin can. She wasn’t so sure she’d make friends as quickly as the man seemed to think, but she’d do her best. She wouldn’t be her father’s daughter if she didn’t at least try. For now, she couldn’t go home. It wasn’t safe to do so. Instead, she’d have to make the best of things. At least it would be fun. There were worse places to run away from home to.
Spud pulled out a photograph album. The cover had seen better days, but inside was a treasure trove of his memories. ‘Look at this.’ He pointed to a newspaper cutting of fields that reached on forever. In the distance, there was a brief glimpse of the sea. Pointing to a corner of the picture, he declared proudly, ‘This is about where we are sitting now.’
Molly was fascinated and looked closer. ‘How long ago would this have been?’
Spud scratched his chin and thought for a while. ‘I’d say eleven or twelve years back. Those muddy fields were used to grow turnips, among other things, before the governor started building.’
‘I ploughed a few fields like that when I was in the Women’s Land Army. It was hard work,’ Molly said with a smile.
Spud looked at her with admiration. ‘Built of stern stuff, then?’ he asked.
‘I’m not afraid of hard work if that’s what you mean,’ she replied.
‘Just like the governor. He didn’t have much money, but he had a dream, and look what he’s done here. “A week’s holiday for a week’s pay.” No one can argue with that, now can they?’
Molly agreed. She recalled the quote from a poster she’d seen stuck to the wall of her favourite chip shop back home.
Spud flicked through the pages, stopping where he’d pasted a piece of cardboard. ‘What do you think of that?’
‘It looks like a piece off an old cigarette packet with a sketch and a few numbers on it.’
‘That’s the governor’s design for a chalet. He was always jotting ideas down on scraps of paper and the back of cigarette packets. He let me have this one,’ he said proudly. ‘Did you know Adolf tried to wipe out the camp? He dropped over fifty bombs here during the war. That Lord Haw-Haw broadcast that the Germans had sunk the battleship HMS Royal Arthur and that all hands had gone down with the ship. That’s what the navy called the camp during the war,’ he added, noticing Molly’s puzzled frown. ‘The silly buggers thought Butlins was a battleship.’ He roared with laughter. ‘Gawd help them if they’d damaged Butlins. The governor would have been after them all and had their guts for garters,’ he chuckled.
‘You seem to be very fond of Mr Butlin,’ Molly said.
‘You could say that. He gave me a job when not many people would. He even gave me my name.’
‘Your name?’
‘You don’t think I was christened “Spud”, do you?’ he laughed. ‘Lord bless you. No, my name is Sebastian Jenkins. The governor said “Sebastian” was too much of a mouthful and decided to call me “Spud” seeing as how we were standing in a potato field at the time. I suppose I was lucky we weren’t in one of the turnip fields.’
Molly laughed until her sides ached. Spud was certainly a tonic. She started to flick through the pages and had just come across a row of enamel lapel badges when the roar of an engine announced the arrival of a car outside.
‘That’ll most likely be one of your colleagues arriving for duty,’ Spud said as he unhooked his clipboard and headed towards the door.
He’d hardly turned the handle when a shriek and a loud expletive were heard from outside. Molly stood up and peered out of the window to see a well-dressed man helping a smartly turned-out woman to her feet. Molly gasped. The woman had tripped over the suitcase Molly had left at the edge of the road by the gatehouse. This was evident by the fact the lid was lying open and a few items of Molly’s best lingerie were now fluttering in the breeze. Rushing to follow Spud outside to offer her apologies to the woman, and hide her underwear, she careered straight into the man, who had been offering his assistance.
‘I’m most awfully sorry. I do hope your companion isn’t injured,’ she blurted out, her attention taken by her best nightdress as it tried to escape the suitcase.
‘Well, well, if it isn’t Molly Missons,’ the man declared with more than a hint of irony in his voice.
Molly froze, wishing a large hole would appear in the road and swallow her up. It was Johnny Johnson, the last man on earth she wished to see here.
1
Molly Missons stepped back from arranging flowers on her parents’ grave and brushed a tear from her cheek. Today, 28 February, should have been their silver wedding anniversary. Instead, it marked the sixth month of their passing and the sixth month she had been alone without a single living relative. Molly prayed fervently that her parents were now watching over her with the same love they’d shown their only child while they were alive. It was the only thought she’d clung on to during those first months of raw grief.
Molly shivered. It felt like rain. She pulled on black woollen mittens and tugged the matching knitted beret over her ears, instantly taming her mop of chestnut curls into submission. From where she stood, at the highest point of Brook Street Cemetery, she could see the town of Erith set out below and, just beyond that, the River Thames. The world was facing a new future filled with hope after many years of war, but Molly felt as though the world as she knew it had ended the day a policeman had knocked on the front door. Today, the river was as grey as the sky, completely devoid of colour, just as Molly’s life had become since that fateful day in August 1945.
‘I still can’t believe they’re no longer here,’ her friend Freda said sadly, linking her arm with Molly’s as they headed through the large iron gates to the bus stop. ‘I fully expect to walk into the church hall and see your mum setting up the toadstool ready for the Brownies to dance round during their pack meeting.’ Not as tall as her friend and with her short light brown hair tucked into a bobbled cap, she didn’t look much older than the Brownies she helped out with, despite being in her mid-twenties and holding down a responsible job as a supervisor in the Woolworths across the road from Molly’s parents’ business.
Molly nodded, a brief smile of remembrance crossing her sad face. The Brownies and Girl Guides had played a big part in her mum’s life. ‘Mum loved them so much. She would have been proud to see how many turned up in uniform for the memorial service.’
‘Do you think you will return to us soon? The younger Brownies keep asking when they will see Tawny Owl again. They don’t really understand what’s happened.’
Molly raised her hand, alerting the driver of an approaching bus as it laboured up the steep hill to the cemetery gates. ‘I suppose I should. Mum wouldn’t want me to mope around like I’ve been doing. I often have the feeling she is sitting on my shoulder telling me to get on with my life. In fact, I’ll join you this week. It’s time I did my utmost to resume as normal a life as possible.’
Freda, sitting down next to her friend on the bus, reached into her handbag for her purse and handed over some coins to the conductor for their fare. ‘Molly, your mum would have been so proud of you since . . . since the accident. Why, you’ve kept your dad’s business running, and there’s not a speck of dust in the house.’ Freda didn’t add that it worried her Molly had yet to pack away her parents’ possessio
ns. The large Victorian house in Avenue Road looked as though Norman and Charlotte Missons had simply left for a few hours and would return at any moment. Norman’s pipe was on the occasional table by his armchair, and Charlotte’s apron still hung on a hook in the kitchen, ready for her to pull on and prepare the family meal. Freda knew it gave Molly comfort to see her parents’ things around the house, but it was time her friend moved on and thought of her future.
Molly smiled. ‘I don’t want to let standards drop. Mum would be mortified if I had a visitor and the house was less than perfect. I must say it’s hard getting home from the shop each evening and having to think about preparing a meal and doing the housework.’
Freda was deep in thought as the bus continued its journey towards Erith. The last thing she wanted to do was upset her friend. She could see that Molly was exhausted, not only from the shock of losing her parents and staying on top of the house but also from keeping Norman’s ironmonger’s running. There was also the responsibility of having a member of staff, who required a pay packet at the end of each week. ‘How are you managing at the shop now you have to be bookkeeper and owner?’
Molly sighed. ‘We’re keeping our heads above water, as Dad used to say. If it weren’t for George and his knowledge of everything to do with the ironmongery business, I’d really be floundering. Thankfully, I picked up the administration side of things from Mum in the year after I left the Land Army. As you know, I was only ever going to help out at the shop while I decided what to do with my future.’ A future without my parents, she thought to herself as she gazed through the grimy window of the bus at the rows of terraced Victorian houses they passed. For a moment, she was lost in thoughts of what might have been.
‘There’s plenty of time. For now, you need to take care of yourself. You may well become an expert in the ironmongery business,’ Freda said with a smile. ‘Whatever you decide, you know I’ll be here to help you.’
‘I don’t feel I’m an asset to the business. I’m at a loss to know the difference between a nut and a bolt, or indeed the uses for the many nails we have in stock. I’m embarrassed to say that when I covered for George on his day off last week and someone enquired about a plumb line, I advised him to visit the greengrocer’s.’
The Butlins Girls Page 1