大象传媒

鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anita Howard (nee Anita M. Sackett) from the Essex Action Desk CSV on behalf of herself and has been added to the site with her permission. Anita Sackett fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

My sister was born on June 5th 1944 during a cold summer just before D-Day. I had to stay with the Wagstaff family (friends of my father), who worked on the same aerodrome at Little Staughton, near St. Neots in Bedfordshire.
They lived in a cottage in the village. It was lit by oil lamps and in the bedroom I had a big jug and basin where I washed in cold water before I went to bed. The ceilings were very low and the stairs very steep. Out side the back door was a field of flowering cowslips. They seemed very tall. Inside the house was a pen of baby chickens kept warm by an oil stove.
Across the road was a cottage garden that had big flowering yellow irises (flags) On Wednesday I was taken to the market at St.Neots by bus. As I climbed onto it the steps seemed very high.
When my sister was born in Finedon Nursing Home in Northants, I was taken to see her. Looking at her asleep in the cot I said she was too little to play with.

Usually cowslips bloom earlier in the year so I often wonder if this memory was correct! My mother always said it was cold and wet and she could never wear pretty summer dresses or make the pram and my sister look nice when she took her out for a walk. Does anyone know if cowslips flowered late in June 1944?

In 1945 the war ended in Europe and people celebrated with street parties on V.E. Day. Everywhere was decorated with red, white and blue flags and bunting. Neighbours set out tables and chairs and we all took our own cup, saucer and plate tied up in a linen napkin or cotton square. We also took our own knife, fork and spoon.

There was bread and butter which you had to eat first, then came sandwiches filled with meat or fish paste, Spam or even jam followed by fairy cakes, iced buns, jelly and blancmange and tinned fruit washed down with orange squash. People had saved ration coupons in order to get these treats. .People had to have ration books for a long time after the end of the war.

When other children鈥檚 dads were returning from abroad (although many didn鈥檛) my dad was sent to Malta as soon as the war had finished. This was because the Maltese aerodromes had been badly bombed (like the rest of Malta) and needed to be repaired. My father was a Station Engineer whose job it was to help maintain the airfields. So my father departed to work for the Air Ministry of Works Department.
It was a whole year before we joined him in Malta but that鈥檚 another story.

Anita Marie Sackett August 2005

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