It's National Merry Go Round Day, folks.

 It's National Merry Go Round Day, folks.

The kids are on their seemingly eternal school summer holidays, mum and dad are about to embark on an extensive course of head scratching before compiling their six or seven week itinerary. This is the time of the year when parents across Britain begin to think that there could be a major conspiracy against them. For a whole year and half they've kept their little darlings safely entertained, well fed and watered and your parents were simply a source of inspiration when the tons of homework for their children might have proved too much.

So it is that the end of July marks that crucial point of the school curriculum when brothers and sisters of a certain age look at each other, long for the much coveted freedoms that only a long break from school can afford and then complain that they're bored and air their grievances to all and sundry. Now the fact is that in modern times no child should ever be at a loss for anything to do. The distractions are endless, the electronic gadgets are readily available and they can chat indefinitely to their friends in Malaysia, India, South Africa, Israel, Brazil and Argentina. And that's only the first day of their school holiday.

Today folks is National Merry Go Round Day. In the old days and the present day one suspects, it's time to take your kids off to the local fairground. Roll up Roll up, Ladies and Gentlemen. The fair has just started in your local park and the children of the world love nothing better than to be flung to the far corners of the globe on one of those breathless rides that take you to the highest of highs and then straight back down to the ground level once again.

Even now you can hear the screeching, the screaming, the joyous whoops of delight, the fun, the happiness and the obvious enjoyment. It fills your heart with the boundless glee you must have felt when you were a child. For this was our first introduction to those formative childhood moments when all was well with the rest of the world. You could quite happily have spent all day and all night at the fairground because there were no guidelines, no parameters, no boundaries, no rules or regulations. 

From the end of July until the beginning of September you were that child who could do whatever you wanted without feeling inhibited or bossed around by mum and dad. Of course you had to come indoors for late afternoon tea or dinner because sooner or later a curtain of darkness would fall over the day and besides it was very late and you'd never be able to see your friends in the gathering gloom. So you accepted the inevitable, wiped the sweat from perspiring foreheads and then watched Blue Peter with Val Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purvis. This was your school summer holidays and none could stop you.

On reflection though it had been quite the most perfect, flawless day of high summer. You'd challenged your friends in the competition that decided who had the fastest bike, pulled tightly on the handlebars and then abandoned yourself to a mini marathon of bike riding. Occasionally you would stop at the very alcoholic Off Licence, smelling the yeast, barley and hops of fragrant Pale Ale, admiring the small piles of empty Tizer bottles before charging off again into the distance. The beer and lager was almost irresistible but of course as a child this would have been unlawful and forbidden. Some of us can still hear the rattle of bottles, the noise of the fridge and hundreds of more cans of booze.

But in the distance you could see the flashing lights of the fairground, the ever present sound of the pop music of the day blaring out ubiquitously across the wonderful suburbs of Ilford, Essex. Then there were the tannoy announcements from the aforesaid fairground imploring the Ferris Wheel to go faster and faster. Here was the merry go round, the carousel with those beautifully polished metallic horses that rose up and then dipped down accompanied by more music from those phenomenal film blockbusters during that summer. It had to be both Saturday Night Fever or Grease since these were the soundtracks of your lives at the time. And you just couldn't stop dancing or humming along to both.

So it's National Merry Go Round Day and still the stunningly iconic Grease the Movie lives comfortably in your memory. In the closing scene of the film, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John declare their undying love for each other, both clad in black leather jackets and reconciled after several tiffs and arguments. They dance around the merry go rounds, the fairground attractions, Travolta with his mechanic friends and Newton John just besotted with her man Danny.

In retrospect we may come to regard our childhood as idyllic which indeed it was. You could jump onto merry go rounds, climb onto those very eye catching tea cups that gently transported you into a world of simple, innocent pleasures and then try to win a goldfish just to complete the day. Even now it is hard to believe that childhood was all about throwing darts at a board and wondering whether you'd actually win a goldfish. 

But then you could always leave your back door open without feeling as if, at any given moment, evil burglars with balaclavas over their heads would break into your living room and then gladly take all of your valuable ornaments. You too could go on the merry go round of your youth,  run around your park with little fear or sense of foreboding, dive into Lido swimming pools for as long as you wanted and then pop into the cinema to watch Saturday Night Fever for the umpteenth time. The summers were your property and your time frame and the merry go round was yours to cherish. And still is.