A Personal Account of Mosney by Craig Johnston Back

I loved Mosney with all my heart. It's still in there now but unfortunately I can't go to it anymore. I went during the 1990's, the parents brought me and my brothers and sisters every year. A tradition that started long before I was born. I am the youngest! I had a great circle of friends and we had a fantastic time for 3 months every year.

The special thing was the lack of televisions, sure there was a tv room and they showed a film each night, but for the most part you were with your friends to have fun. It was like a place to escape everyday life, everything was perfect in my eyes. My friends were Julie, Craig, Troy, Ciara, Emma and Lauren. Others joined the group over the years, like Clare, Zara, a few Daniels, Ashley, John, Joseph, and I'm sure many others. But my core group of friends never changed.

Can't forget the little hares that ran around the tall grass and hid in bushes. It was like a little treasure to spot one. Me and Julie loved the arcade, everyone did, but we had a particular passion. We were small and had no shame it appears as we would crouch and look under machines, search the flaps where money is refunded and just be on the look out when we ran out from playing the 2p slot machines. Ocassionally an old lady would ask you to try and win a teddy in the hook machines, I'd always try my best and it usually worked, so much for the things being rigged! I remember one time Julie got lucky at bingo and we won the top prize of 25 pound, we were estatic.

My parents werent the biggest drinkers and only came to the Ballroom a few times each stay, but everyone elses family's came down each night, watched the shows, played some cards and had a laugh. We would all walk home together and say goodbye before I'd run to my mobile home. I remember one night it was cold but all I had on was a tshirt, so I had the wise idea to put my arms in my tshirt. Wouldn't you know I fell, and ended up hitting my face off a curb, there was a lot of blood and a scab on my face for a few weeks, I recall feeling weird about it and didn't want to go out. But at night, I felt a little better and decided to go to the ballroom, forgetting that there was a huge mirror before you walk in, I was a little embarrassed but everyone acted normal to me and I realised it wasn't the end of the world.

My parents would always take us to the beach, we made sandcastles, had water fights in the sea, occasionally we would walk up to the next town on the beach and I would look for nice shells and stones along the way, it was a mini adventure for me. We sometimes rode the swan boats or went to the spinning saucers for some fun.

Can't forget the swimming pool. Lots of fun there, one time I seen my dad, sister and her friends playing in the deeper end and I was bored of the shallow. So I ventured into the deeper water and end up nearly drowning, a weird experience as I tried to jump and catch some air, also trying to call for help, lucking my Dad grabbed me up and I never tried it again until I was tall enough and learned to swim.

Other injuries I remember are simply falling off a wall and damaging my elbow, also tried a handstand once but end up landing on my head. We had a tree we would pretend to be apes around, and a friend would sing music man, children have weird ways of being entertained. The animal farm was always fun too, one time Julie tried bringing an egg home to hatch it, put it in a box with toilet roll, it would never work.

I have lots of happy memories of Mosney and miss it dearly. The last night I was there was filled with lightning and rain, I think I was having a bit of a fight with Julie too, not the best way to end it, but luckily we are still in contact and I have just found a few others recently through the internet.