‘We’re looking for tigers, we’re looking for cheetahs, we’re looking for rhinos and big alligators, gorillas and panthers and little bear cubs, because we’re having fun in the Tiger Club ...”
If you sing those words it may mean something – for me it means childhood.
And I was prompted to re-visit it after going on my first camping trip with my young son.
The lyrics are for a song called The Tiger Club song and if you were once in the ‘Tiger Club’ you’ll soon head to Youtube and find the song is equally as bad as it is amazing.
And yet as a child every summer the Douglas family would pack up our tent and head off to a campsite where I and hundreds others would, on an evening, head down to the entertainment complex and collectively do the Tiger Club song – there may even have been a dance too!
It’s a journey I am about to embark on with my own family and this year myself, my partner and our 21-month-old son have enjoyed our first family camping trips.
A fair-haired family, we were not made for a summer holiday abroad.
So ‘staycations’ it is and we’re holidaying in Britain this summer.
In the places we’ve visited so far we’ve spotted seals swimming in the sea and built sandcastles on golden sands (both in Great Yarmouth) and enjoyed a boat trip on a lake in part of an area so stunning it’s just been awarded Unesco World Heritage status.
Yes the Lake District has this month joined the likes of the Grand Canyon, the Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu by being given the accolade and it’s almost on our doorstep.
Both trips in our tent got me thinking of my own childhood holidays and it struck me that the holidays I remember most are the ones we had in the UK.
I’m lucky that my parents were able to take my brother and I abroad each a year, but every summer we’d tour around in our trailer tent; a patchwork canvas of orange, green and yellow that was so uncool but is now remembered fondly.
We had summers of sandcastle-making – our family were reigning sandcastle champions at one site on the east coast for three years – and I recall trekking around Eden Camp and Beamish to make our trips ‘educational’.
Taking showers in communal blocks never seemed unusual; washing-up outside was the norm and even the drive to the campsites was an adventure – a packet of Woolies pick n mix would be passed around whenever me and my brother got bored of ‘eye spy’ or hitting each other with pillows.
No-one had coined the phrase ‘staycation’ back then, but that’s certainly what I’ve done each summer.
So far our two trips have come in at less than £300 and we’ve got some great memories, photos and anecdotes already.
The UK offers city life, rural life, beach life.
I know people escape the UK for the weather, but with a little imagination even a rainy day can be fun.
Come rain or shine we live in a beautiful country and it’s here I’ll take most of my holidays.
And in a few year’s time I’ll be back to see if Rory the Tiger is still entertaining the today’s children as much as he did my generation.
