大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Rebecca Hood of the People's War Team in Wales on behalf of John Barratt and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

At the start of the war I was playing at the bottom of our garden with a friend of mine. I remember they put the siren on to warn people when there was danger afoot鈥�.and I said to my friend 鈥淚 think we have to run for cover when we hear this noise鈥�. I said to him 鈥渨hat do you think about us being at war with Germany? And he said 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what to think鈥�.but as long as we鈥檙e friends we鈥檒l keep together鈥� And I said 鈥淎nd I don鈥檛 care either鈥s long as you stay my friend I won鈥檛 be frightened of Germany鈥�

I think one of the most frightening times was when Gerry went over in his bombers and we heard the roar of the engines and then the air raid warning went off and my mother would come into my bedroom and she would whisper: 鈥淛ohnny, Johnny wake up 鈥� the Germans are here 鈥� quickly. And I said to my mother 鈥淢um, why are you whispering鈥�?鈥� 鈥淥h we don鈥檛 want them to hear us鈥� 鈥淏ut Mum, they鈥檙e a couple of thousand feet up in the air how could they possibly hear us.鈥� 鈥淥h no you鈥檝e got to be quiet鈥�, she鈥檇 say 鈥渃ome on quickly now down to the shelter!鈥�

Clothing was a big problem as you needed coupons for clothing. So basically we visited the second hand markets, jumble sales whatever we could get hold of. And my mother would stitch and sew up old clothing 鈥� and whatever my brother grew out of I used to have to wear it鈥ven to the point where I had to wear his shoes. And of course he鈥檇 kicked the toes out of them, and there were no soles in them and basically I remember going to school with a piece of cardboard in the bottom of the shoe so that the cold weather wouldn鈥檛 go through into my socks.

Whenever we wanted anything, a favourite saying of my mother was:鈥漺hen the banana boat comes in鈥�. Of course this was a few years into the war when I never even saw a banana and of course when the banana boat comes in鈥�.we thought it was just one of those sayings. But it was real鈥ecause you鈥檇 never see bananas, oranges and all that beautiful fruit that we can get today 鈥� we didn鈥檛 ever see it, so we didn鈥檛 know what we were missing. Probably I was deficient in lots of vitamins and minerals because we didn鈥檛 get fresh fruit鈥o that was one important thing we missed out on.. Now the ration books that came around, where you could only have a very small piece of cheese, small piece of butter, small piece of margarine But we were very fortunate being a large family, we had plenty of margarine, but people round about us 鈥� they liked butter, but because it was such a small quantity it never lasted them so they used to offer their butter to us for margarine. So we were very fortunate to have quite a lot of butter during the war. Basically things weren鈥檛 that marvellous, but looking back they weren鈥檛 that bad either.

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