大象传媒

You鈥檒l never guess where I was on VE Day, so I鈥檒l tell you. I was sitting on the statue of Queen Victoria opposite Buckingham Palace with a crowd of other young people, waiting for the Royal Family to come out on to the balcony. To say the mood was light is an understatement, it was hilarious! Even the lamp-posts were alive, there was someone perched on top of every one.

When the King, Queen, and Princesses came out, Churchill was with them and of course he had to bring us down to earth, or try anyway. He promised more toil and sweat, that we must not relax our efforts. "Now that we have won the war鈥� he said, 鈥渨e must work to win the peace. There must be no falling off.鈥� That, of course, was the signal for all of us to fall off the statue of Queen Victoria, tumbling about like boisterous puppies. (She would not have been amused.)

Those on the lamp-posts slithered down to join the crowd all off to the park for more fun. It was a surging mass. I did not walk there, I was propelled, my feet hardly touching the ground. So tightly packed were we that I had to fight for breath, a scary experience, but what a happy, happy day.

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