大象传媒

I remember ration books, I was seven when the war started. I remember we had the wireless on, we were sitting round it, my dad was in uniform, mum had my little brother on her knee, my sister and other brother were playing and someone said "that's it we're at war", I don't remember who. It might have been my dad. He was in the Territorial Army and they were all to meet in the drill hall. we lived in a house in Townhead, Glasgow, Scotland three storeys high. The next thing I remeber is my sister and I lying in bed when I heard this chug chug chug noise above then this terrible wailing sound, my mum was shouting come on down to the shelter. We ran out of the door and all the neighbours were helping us down the three flights of stairs into this place. It had no windows and was made of bricks. There were lots of people sitting, children in their nightclothes. It was a nightmare, I canstill feel it even now in my seventies. I remember the ration books, you had to have coupons for food, clothes and sweets. Every Saturday my mum would buy sweets with our coupons. I would think to myself that when I grew up I would have lots of sweets, sugar and eggs. We did not have a lot of eggs, one for each person per week. We had dried egg which I thought was good.
Going to school we carried a gasmask. The first time I tried it on I felt ill. I have never put anything like it over my face since.There were backcourt concerts with people dressing up in all colours of crepe paper. They would sing and dance and everyone would be happy for a while. The blackout was bad, you could not put a light on in case German planes came. We had to dress in the dark when the air raid started, I remember one night my brother put his jumper sleeves on his legs, another time my mum could not go to the shelter as my sister was ill so the next door neighbour took us. While we were playing outside this telegram boy on a bike came into the street, all the women came round to see who he was looking for. He was looking for my mum, we all waited while she opened the telegram but it was good news, it said my dad had arrived home from Dunkirk saf and sound. My mum did not even know he had been there. I think of the one parent families of today and wonder if they remember the mothers who brought up their children while the men were away fighting the war. It was not an easy time for them

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