大象传媒

We didn鈥檛 see much of the Blitz in Kidderminster, just the odd bomb or two. Even so my mother made us sleep down the cellar for a while. It was most depressing and damp with mice running around. We could hear the bombs going off in Birmingham and other unfortunate places and the skies were lit up with search lights. Barrage balloons were everywhere. Our school, Harry Cheshire School, was bombed I think in 1941. We were going to school and met a group of children going home. 鈥淵ou can go back鈥� they said 鈥渢he school鈥檚 been bombed鈥�. It was a stray bomb that damaged the gym and the bike sheds. We all went home cheering and shouting "hooray for Hitler". Another bomb fell on a house at Aggborough and a land mine was dropped in a field at Hoobrook.
My father was too old for the army and joined the Home Guard. We used to watch them training, crawling through the undergrowth. We looked upon it as a Mickey Mouse army and we used to have fun playing them up.
One night my aunt and I had gone up to bed and were looking out of the window and saw a parachute come down into the nearby wood. We didn鈥檛 tell anyone so we never knew who that was or what happened to him.
We used to see the American soldiers from the camp at Wolverley, in town on Saturday afternoons. They would be leaning up against the walls whistling 鈥� you could always come home on Saturday with a Yank or two!
However, despite the blackout, rationing of food and clothes, our anxiety for our loved ones in the forces and our concern for the people at home being bombed; I can honestly say it is a time I look back on with great nostalgia and affection.

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