大象传媒

When I left school at fourteen, I was employed as a milkman, first delivering loose milk in cans with ladles on a bicycle, then bottles on a tricycle with side-car and after with a pony and trap. The field the pony was grazed on was ploughed up so he was just living on the headlands (that鈥檚 the surround). He used to know every house he went to. He started off a bit fast one time and I came out of the cart and I was going under the wheels but I shouted 鈥淲oah, Bob鈥� and he stopped dead.

I went to my last house on the quarry, which was Barnett鈥檚, and you always got a cup of tea there. The poor pony was that hungry that he walked on a little bit with the cart and pulled the wheel up the bank and he came over and tipped it into the lane. I was able to get one of the local chaps, Bill Bloore and we sat on the ponies head and un-harnessed him. The pony was none the worse for it but the people that employed me weren鈥檛 too pleased. Any rate, I left at that.

I thought I鈥檇 get a job where they were building houses down on the Dale Lands here for workers at Shawbury because tea boys were earning 9d an hour. Alas, I鈥檇 had stamps on my insurance card classifying me as being in a 鈥榬eserved occupation鈥� (meaning I wouldn鈥檛 be called up for the forces) so I got a job threshing corn following a traction engine with a box and bailer and some Land Girls were with us.

I was a member of the local church Lads鈥� Brigade at Little Drayton; I was in the bugle band there. During the war, six of those were killed. Later I was a member of the Home Guard.

My middle brother worked at the local swimming baths. In the winter he was employed snow shifting or erecting gas detector plates which were supposed to change colour if gas was present. He worked on local airfields before being called-up.

My other brother was already in the Grenadier Guards.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of George Samuel Plim and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Sam's stories:

• 1) A Phoney War
• 2) Our first intake of evacuees
• 4) As long as I was fed I could do virtually anything
• 5) After one was shot the rest surrendered鈥�
• 6) Our Final Battle
• 7) 鈥楧on鈥檛 lose your head to an Italian Brunette!鈥�

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