I remember trying to make my way through the big Teddy Boys crowding round the jukebox smoking fags and wearing big rings. I was warned that after you had put your threepenny bit into the slot you had to press the buttons quickly to get your play before the Teds pressed them to select their choice.

When finances got better for Mum and Dad and the sixties had started to "swing", we were able to afford holidays in posh Hotels on the South Coast and the Isle of Wight. We were warned not to laugh as dickie-bowed waiters presented us with menus all in French. Clean tablecloths appeared on our table each day, along with carefully rolled linen serviettes held in decorated silver rings. My father told us that they had a waiter just to serve wine, but I as a kid found this hard to believe. It was a far cry from the days of chips in damp newspaper, cold caravans with gas lighting and homely seaside landladies serving breakfast in flowery aprons.

In later years I took my own little family to Weston-Super-Mare to see a faded sixties idol performing at the Winter Gardens. Once a proud and "posh" resort to which Welsh miners came to enjoy the sea air as early as the 30s, it still held a certain elegance that Skegness had never owned.

The Winter Gardens was of Cathedral proportions with flaking white plaster walls. I tried to imagine the splendor it had once possessed. My dream was shattered, however, as I spotted my 60s idol after the show. Strolling down one of the sumptuous hallways I spotted him emerging from what seemed to be a canteen, balancing a plate of curry on one hand whilst clutching a fork in the other. He slurped the food into his mouth as he tottered down the same hall way that years before ladies in ball gowns accompanied by their beau with slick Brylcreamed hair, evening suit and shiny patent shoes would have promenaded.

"The times, they are a-changing" groaned Bob Dylan. Times will always change and seaside resorts will flourish, fade and die. But Time and Tide wait for no man and one day the mighty sea will take back what is hers and the 'Jolly' will be no more.

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