Dreamland!! The pictures on the internet of Margate's newest restored, retro, attraction remind me of an exotic combination of Clacton-on-sea as it was when I grew up there in the 1950s; and the St Giles Fair which happens in Oxford in September each year but is not in the least what it used to be. As I listened to the account from Margate on the Home Service, I recalled Prebendary Hooper setting out from Mags in Oxford in the 1960s with his aspersorium to bless the Giler as it started on the Monday. And a natural train of thought led me to a fantastical vision of Fr Tim charging round the newly renovated newly opened highly retro Dreamland at Margate, his cotta flying in the sea wind and with his retro Rituale Romanum in hand and a server clanking the Holy Water bucket. "Over 'ere, Favver!" the retro Cockney stall-holders will have been shouting. "Give us so' more 'oly Wa:er!!"
Ah, the seaside. I bet they don't have seasides in America. Or Cockneys. Or retro. Or Father Finigan.
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We used to have seasides of a sort here in the US at least in New England but they have all been made over into condos for the well to do. And they were never anything quite like what you had in the UK (having grown up a few stops on the LT&S from Southend-on-Sea I think I know what you mean by a seaside).
Dear Fr Hunwicke.
You have summed up Margate and Fr Finigan perfectly. There MUST be a Blessing Ritual, somewhere, for a Dodgem Car and The Big Dipper !!!
Lots of laughs imagining your Comments.
May I, respectfully, suggest an Oxford Parish Outing to Dreamland ?
Why, Fr. Hunwicke, America certainly does have the seaside, in Rhode Island alone we have 400 miles of Atlantic Ocean seaside, and there's plenty more. It's all beautiful, at all times of the year, and it is appreciated, because we are, many of us, huddled as close to it as we can get. Yes sir, Americans love our saltwater oceans. We have lovely, huge lakes, but the smell of salt air, the breeze, the sand and gulls, it's all here. You must come and visit!
I must tell you, we do have a seaside here on the NW US coast, in the city of Seaside. My sister and I spent a lovely 48 hours there last weekend. As she is even older than I, and a bit handicapped, we did not ride the Dodgem Car ( I offered, and I would have prevailed...), but we had lovely fish and chips, and managed to get a little walkabout on the promenade between the usual rainstorms. It was surprisingly warm and we enjoyed it immensely. And the last room I could reserve for us on the ocean (at the last minute) was perhaps the oldest in town, but with big picture windows to watch the waves. It was lovely.
I always thought you were from Cornwall, father?
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