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This story was submitted to the People`s War site by Alan Magson of Age Concern Bradford and District on behalf of Mary Duffty nee Tingle and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site`s terms and conditions.

We all lived in the small village at Old Colwick, near Nottingham, when war broke out. Our road, Mile End Road, was literally the end of the mile race of Nottingham racecourse. My earliest memory of that period, is when my brother was born .I awoke early to find everyone rushing round. The snow was deep but the taxi arrived to take mother to the Nursing Home at Mapperley, a few miles away. My gran was "in charge" and sent me off to school .I returned telling her the snow was over my Wellington boot tops. "Off you go" she said, so I did, wearing a warm coat, gloves and hand-knitted pixie hood. As my father was rung at all times of day and night, we had two telephones, one upstairs and one down. I had to tell gran she was talking into the earpiece, when the news came about my brother.
At that time we all slept downstairs behind the large bookcase-cum-bureau, made by Great Uncle Jo. Jim, our wirehaired fox terrier, hated the guns booming and once disgraced himself. Later, we had an Anderson shelter in the front room (it should have been in the garden). There was just room for me to sit at the piano. l got into trouble, in the shelter, for telling stories to my brother. There was a small electric fire in the shelter ,too, but it was cold; no wonder I got "itchblains" on my fingers and toes, and "Snowfire" ointment didn't produce much relief. The hated daily dessertspoon of cod liver oil and malt in winter was supposed to help the problem. My brother qualified for cod liver oil and concentrated orange juice, but the former went to Brian, next door. He loved it. Ugh!
At night we could hear "Big Bertha" booming and the drone of German planes overhead. We remember the day before D-Day when there was a continuous stream of "our "planes overhead. Searchlights could also be seen. Despite the fact there was a munitions factory a few miles away, only one bomb was dropped near us, by the railways. One L.M.S., one L.N.E.R. One Sunday afternoon, we were diverted from our walk because of the bomb.

I attended the small C of E primary school of "St John the Baptist" as did the few Roman Catholic children, who moved at 8.There were from 60-80 pupils and the school consisted of the Infant room and a large room divided by a partition. Popular Head, Mr.Padmore, was "called up" and replaced by Mr.Lea. Apart from the August holiday of 1940,when we attended school for halfdays, our schooling wasn't disrupted. Mrs.Dean came out of retirement to teach Standards 1 and 2,and complained about my hemstitches," Tigers Teeth", she called them and I never did finish my socks on four needles.
According to my composition of 24.09.41.we had "an air-raid shelter. It is made of bricks with a roof of concrete. It has forms in it stretching from one end to the other end and it is oblong. It has lavetrys at end"(original spellings!). We had "shelter practice"and sang songs there.
We all had a shared plot in the vegetable garden in Standards 3 and 4.One year, my friend Joy and I won a 6d savings stamp each, as second prize. We all belonged to the school savings bank and ""present" money went there in.
We had a yearly concert. One year I was King Midas daughter and wore an underslip of my mother's and an old blouse dyed yellow, for when I turned to gold!
In 1944 I moved to West Bridgeford Grammar School, travelling on two buses and a trolley bus. Mum was saving clothing coupons for my uniform; even my "berry" ( beret ) was one coupon. The uniform consisted a pinafore dress, blouses, tie, summer dresses, gabardine, mac, blazer, shorts and blouse for games and a blue "Greek" tunic for P.E. A lot of coupons were used. My brother was only at school a while before war ended. I only remember two evacuees at school.
My mother didn't go out to work. Our neighbour went to help at school dinners, but we came home. My mother belonged to the Mothers' Union. Mrs Wood, the leader, who lived in a large house called" The Grange", was the local W.V.S.Ieader and mother helped there.
My father shared an allotment on the glebe land, where our new church was to be. As well as growing vegetables at home I enjoyed helping to plant seeds and picking beans, peas and runner beans.
Mother salted the latter in large jars for winter use. Dad grew large marrows and pumpkins, some
went to the "Harvest Festival" at church and others were made into marrow and ginger and pumpkin and ginger jams.
My friend and I queued for fruit and tomatoes and we went blackberrying and “crabappleing". Mum's favourite jam was made from Mrs.Triffitt's(l think!) luscious Victoria plums: if I ate too many I had a rash. She also bottled plums.

Bread and cooking fat were pretty tasteless but homemade tarts tasted better with homemade jam. When my brother was about four, we had visitors and my mother put out an extra tart. John counted and asked who was to have the extra one! School dinners were cooked "on the spot' at the Grammar School and we had to eat everything regardless of whether we liked it or not. The Prefect presiding at the end of the table made sure we did. We hated lumpy semolina and what we called "horse-stew". We were fortunate to have home grown vegetables and our friend continued to give us some, after dad went away to work.
Our kindly Gran (mother's mother), a widow, came to stay and always saved her sweet ration for us. My brother, the future accountant, would count his Dolly mixtures and liquorice torpedoes. In my 1943 diary I wrote: "Go to Netherfield, get three oranges “, dated 24.12.43.
When father worked away, mysterious objects appeared. Hares, rabbits, partridges and pheasants! Sometimes he was given eggs and "home-made" farm butter. Uncle Bernard, in Montreal, Dad's oldest brother, sent seeds, food parcels and bright red apples from the orchard of his "country home" We shared these goodies with our friends. Uncle Bernard's three sons joined the Canadian Army and uncle Bernard was called in as Government adviser on the popularising of "War Savings" and performed this duty so successfully that he became chairman of the Quebec Public Relations section of the War Finance Committee-taken from the Middlesboro "Evening Gazette"28.03.47 about his retirement that year. We still had Sunday school and birthday parties.

My 1943 diary shows I spent a lot of time amusing my brother and taking him out. We had some small coloured bricks and I would make a house for the small black brick, known as "Letch Brick" and tell John stories about him! We "played out", did jigsaws and played games. "Snap", "Ludo", bagatelle. I was keen on "Mickey Mouse" and took the comic. Above all I was an avid reader and had County Library books from school and books from the "urban" library a few miles away. I enjoyed playing the piano. It was a three-mile walk to my music teachers and I was halfway there once, when the siren went. I carried on.
We made "dens" in a nearby field, picked "conkers" in the local woods, caught tiddlers in the "Little Trent"(l once nearly fell in) and in winter went sledging down the hillside. We went long walks with my parents.' The Arboretum" and "Wollaton Park" were popular places and we went to "Newstead Abbey" or the "University Park" for our Sunday school treat. We watched our parents play tennis. Sundays, we went to Church and Sunday school and had a singsong round the piano! When we visited friends, Mrs.F insisted on putting sugar in our tea, which we hated. Our sugar ration was used for "jamming".
I took the terrier out and later Spot the mongrel. I mowed the lawns and swept the snow "inside and "outside" when Dad was away. My friends liked "Roy Rogers" films and my 1943 diary mentions "Miracle Kid" and "Queen of the Jungle". On the radio we liked "Children's Hour", "Toytown" with fierce Mr.Growser and "Uncle Mac" as the quavering Larry the Lamb: -Mr. Grow-ow-ser, Sir" was a favourite. Others were "Norman and Henry Bones, boy detectives and "said the cat to the dog". I was allowed to stay up for "I.T.M.A " and "Monday night at 8". My friend Joy and I played with her pet rabbits and her swing was very popular. For holidays we stayed with my Grandma at Scunthorpe and with my father (details later).
My father was an air raid warden and on the committee of the village "Comforts Fund". My friend Margaret and I raised some money once, we collected articles from friends and sold them and made six shillings. as the receipt shows.
Dad was in charge of a petrol depot belonging to T.O.P., Trent Oil Products, and part of a large installation on the "Little Trent". He had two 'phones, one up and one downstairs as Mr.Harker, in charge of the petrol barges, would ring at all hours to say barges were waiting to be unloaded. I sometimes went down to the office at weekends and was a great friend of "Taffy" Williams, the loader. Dad was "digging for victory" with Charles Horner, brother of Arthur Horner, the Communist Leader. Not surprisingly, he was in charge at R.O.P. (Russian Oil Products) all of which became "Pool" and the red and green and blue lorries became a uniform grey.
The staff of all the depots formed a large platoon of Home Guards, under the redoubtable Major Beasley.
Then my father was put in charge of a large underground Air Ministry Fuel depot at Stowe Park, near Gainesboro', supplying 'dromes such as Scampton. He was well known and never showed his pass. One day the guard at Scampton made a big fuss and Dad later learnt that George the Sixth had been there that day, presenting medals.
We stayed with him during the holidays, first at "The Old Hall", Stourton-by-Stowe. There, Mrs Buttery gave my brother and I homemade scones with farm butter. A real treat. These were for our lunch as we went brambling. Once Mother found herself cooking for three hungry men and us. Dad hadn't told her that Mrs. Buttery, the housekeeper, was on holiday! He later moved to another large house and the owner took me to Lincoln. I never forgot my first view of the magnificent West front of the Cathedral. There was one bus a day to Lincoln and one to Gainesboro'. We made a lot of friends there, my father being a great socialiser-not a drinker! One Christmas, one of the geese which guarded the depot became our Christmas dinner.
Father came home in 1946.During the war he came at weekends in the car. Once when my brother was small, Dad reprimanded him for misbehaving. Who's that man? "he said.

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