Bringing the past to the present in Blackpool

When your past suddenly bounces into your present, nostalgia becomes a bed companion that can encircle you with warmth of happy memories.

This is how I have felt this weekend when I returned to Blackpool for this first time in a decade.

Blackpool holds a sackful of memories for me, as a child I spent summers here, staying with my beautiful aunt and two little cousins.  Everything I associate with Blackpool makes me feel good.  The memories stand out.  It is a place where I feel happy.

As we drove towards Blackpool, the car filled with excited yelps as the famous tower came into view.  I was thrown backwards to my youth, squeezed in a Vauxhall Astra van between my brothers, shouting and pointing at the magnificent tower rising up through the northern skyline.

As a grown up, I felt the familiar warmth spread through my belly, and a fantastic feeling of familiarity wash over me.  I delighted in the fact the children’s excitement mirrored my own.

Blackpool was where I first rode the big dipper, got to be big sister to my two small, adorable cousins, rather than little sister to my two rotten, older brothers.

As I aged, I returned, taking friends to see the illuminating lights, descending on my aunt as a adrenalin hunting adolescent.  Riding the bigger rides, starting to sample the nightlife.  Staying up late with my mums’ sister, gossiping over drinks, relishing the feeling of being away from home.

Time passed, University beckoned, I grew up, left home, moved from the busty brazeness of Blackpool, to her slightly more cultural sister, Brighton.

But it was Blackpool that gave me the love of the sea that has coursed through my veins ever since.

Yet, as can happen to the very best of friends, Blackpool and I grew apart, through miles rather than affection.

But now I am back, courtesy of the Cliffs Hotel who have invited us for a review trip of their kids orientated hotel.

It feels like coming home and I can’t wait to bring my past to the present and share it all with my kids.

 

I am so excited to be shortlisted in the Mad Blog Awards 2014 in two categories,

thanks to everyone who voted in the first stage

Best Writer and Most Entertaining,

if you would like Northernmum to win, please take a moment to vote here