大象传媒

Peggy Hart:
When I was about three, I was living in Rotherhithe in a terraced house. My brother James was about a year younger than me. We slept upstairs, and when the air raid siren sounded our parents would take us under the stairs. There was a bed in there and we were told to stay there. I remember hearing banging and loud noises which would have been bombs being dropped. One night, the raid was local to our area. There was lots of commotion outside and my mother went out to see. There was a bus driver and his passengers. A bomb had been dropped and created a big hole in the road and the bus couldn't go anywhere, as it was dark. They stayed the night and the rationed food had to be shared out for tea. I remember that my brother was a chubby baby with big, blue eyes but I was plain. The passengers played with my brother and made a fuss of him. I probably remember this because I was jealous! They left once it was light again.
Two windows were blown out in the bombing raids and I was very scared. We were evacuated to Wattisham in Suffolk to live with their grandparents. My brother James and I went ahead and our parents followed. They managed to drive at night with no lights to a place they hadn鈥檛 been to before! They lived in a little house. In the village there were Prisoners of Wars. They did jobs around the village and one day they robbed and burnt down a house.
The Americans threw great parties, and at Christmas we were given a big box of food, which was almost a luxury because of rations. My father got sent to the war. He was in charge of a clocks and watches workshop. All clocks and watches had to be synchronized and it was my father's job to oversee it was done properly. He even got a mention in dispatches for his work and got an Oak Leaf on his medal.
I didn't see my father for four years!
We had many evacuees. First there was Mrs. Moore, who had her ninetieth birthday there, and her daughter Nen. Mrs. Moore was still living there when she died at 92. My father's sister and her son Tommy were evacuated to us as well. They lived in
a two bedroomed bungalow with no sanitation: my mother went out at night and dug a hole; sometimes during the day too because of the number of people living there. One house in the village had a plane crash into it. The housekeeper and baby got killed. I never moved back to London but stayed and got married. I now have grandchildren!

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