Fancy That!

Mike and I used to belong to a caravan rally club.  Every Friday evening we would hitch up the van and take off in various directions and return on the Sunday evening.  It was a lot of fun and we got to know a great bunch of people.  On Saturday nights there would be a social in a local hall where the drink flowed freely and we danced the night away.  Our neighbours used to think we were mad, off we went in all weathers, rain, fog, sleet, snow, nothing deterred us hardy caravanners.

Now and again we would have a fancy dress evening or sometimes have to arrive at the chosen site in fancy dress:-

Here we are having just arrived at our destination.  I told Mike that his beloved beige cardigan was hardly the thing for riding the range but he would not be parted from it.  In fact it was many years before it eventually got thrown away!  Believe it or not, later on dressed in our waistcoats and boots, we won the best dressed cowboys competition.

I have so many happy memories of those days.  Our particular friends were Daphne and John and oh the laughs we had with them.  You really had to be there to appreciate it.  We always barbecued anything we ate during the day.  On one occasion Mike and John decided to cook a whole chicken on a small spit over the b-b-q.  They had partaken of quite a few drinks.  The chicken caught fire , flames shooting up quite high and Mike and John made frantic efforts to save it.  Their antics made Daphne laugh so much that she had to beat a hasty retreat into her caravan to change her underwear!

At one fancy dress Mike decided to go as the devil.  I told him he really did not need a costume for that - he was not amused:-

He scared the daylights out of the children.  Here he is with his prize, a large jar of sweets.

On one New Year's Eve we really went to town and held a fancy dress ball.  I wracked my brains over what I could wear and then decided that I would go as an Elizabethan lady and Mike said I looked like Anne Boleyn. I am only grateful I was not married to Henry.

The quality of this photo is not good.  That is because it was taken with Polaroid which was all the rage at the time.

Mike could not make up his mind what to wear, what character to go as, but told me he wanted to keep it a secret, even from me.  I imagined him wearing Elizabethan costume, possibly a sword and looking very dashing.  What a grand entrance we would make!  After I was dressed and ready I was told to go and sit in John and Daphne's van whilst he got changed. We waited eagerly to see just who would be escorting "Anne" to the ball .  Here is the result:-

Hardly a matching couple!  I have to admit and so did others, that the costume really suited him.  Anne is supposed to have committed adultery with various men but I never did read that she had a relationship with a Native American.

Mike is currently going through all our old photographs and negatives and saving them so I hope to be able to share other rally photographs with you in the future.

Mike never really wore anything outrageous in our caravanning days, no - he saved that for a family party. Our lovely friend, little Peter, took one look at him and went into hysterical laughter.  He could not stop and had to be eventually helped from the room.  What had amused him so :-

MICHAELA!

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture but you get the idea.  Mike said I would not dare to put it on my journal (wrong Mike, tee hee). With grapefruits stuffed down one of my bras and Come and Get It and I'm Easy written on the front of his T-shirt, you can imagine the uproar he caused. He drew the line at high heelsthough, he tried but could not manage them.

At least my beloved has always been a good sport and we have such happy memories of our past together.  If only we could turn back the clock...........

Hope, dear readers, that you have enjoyed seeing these pictures.

Thanks to Angel and friends for the tag.