大象传媒

I was 11 years old and had just left my junior school for the summer holidays.

My teacher called that evening and asked my parents if I could go back to school the next day to help with the arrival of the children who were coming from Hoxton in London.

The next morning found me, with my friend Jill, in the wide main corridor which was lined with tressle tables loaded with tinned food, tea, coffee, chocolate and other long lasting foods. Our first job was to take a carrier bag (all brown paper in 1939, of course) and put one of each item on the table on it. Once the evacuees arrived, tired and sad at leaving their homes, we had to give them one bag of goodies each to be taken to their new home.

The children were also given a drink and something to eat in an effort to cheer them up, and a group of pregnant ladies were given a room of their own with comfortable chairs so as to be able to rest. One thing in particular I remember was being asked to take a tray of milk (full milk - not skimmed or semi-skimmed) for them to drink or use in their tea.

Whilst all this was going on and Jill and I
were dashing around doing all the jobs the staff gave us to do the Head Teachers from our school and the visiting school met for the first time and discussed how the school
building was to be shared between all the
children. In the event one group of children used the school in the morning, and the other group used it in the afternoon.

It was quite difficult to use the time when we were not at school because, being wartime,many of the mothers were working in factories or offices and shops but as families lived near each other at that time grandmas and grandfathers often looked after the children.

Being only 11 I didn't know how many headaches the teachers had but things seemed to go fairly smoothly. Outside
school the children settled things through verbal abuse and/or fisticuffs and some friendships. The local children did not much enjoy sharing their school and their homes and all the evacuees wanted to do despite being away from the bombing was to go home to Mum and Dad and gradually they drifted back to Hoxton.

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