大象传媒

I was 13 when war broke out.
One of the things I remember most abut the war years was my mother trying to get me out of bed when the air raid sirens sounded during the night. I never wanted to get up as I worked at the Co-op Bakery and started work very early in the morning. I used to say that if I had 鈥渢o go鈥� I would rather 鈥済o鈥� in bed. Every time the sirens sounded my mother had the same problem with me. We had an Anderson shelter in our backyard but hardly ever used it. We would either go to the shelter in Alma Street or down into the cellar of the local grocer, Fred Dowson鈥檚 shop instead. Fred Dowson was also an air-raid warden and I remember helping sitting on the roof of the bakery helping him fire-watch. My mother was always worried about me, wondering where I was and if I was alright. With two brothers away fighting she must have been very frightened of losing any of us.
About 1944, I remember one night my friend Bella, who had a twin sister, Sarah, came to ask me if I wanted to go the pictures with her and her boyfriend Stan Wilson, and his friend, who was home on leave from the army. I had just put curlers in my hair and told her that there was no way I would go out if the curlers didn鈥檛 鈥渢ake鈥�! I didn鈥檛 go out that night, but the next night I went to Bella鈥檚 house, where I met Stan鈥檚 friend, Walter Boston. We all went dancing, but Walter had to leave to get a train back to his barracks at midnight. As Walter waved good-bye to us, Stan gave him my address written on an empty Woodbines packet, in case he wanted to write to me.
He did write sometimes 10 pages at a time!
I remember how expensive it was to buy stockings, about 拢2 a pair, I think. So we would 鈥減aint鈥� our legs and draw a 鈥渟eam鈥� at the back with an eyebrow pencil to fake them. My boyfriend would always laugh and joke about how crooked the line was. Once when he came home on leave he brought me four pairs of silk stockings from Trieste. I was over the moon and my friends were all really jealous.
Walter came home safe after the war, and we were married on 18th September 1948.

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