大象传媒

The houses in Clacton were freed for renting after the troops moved out and we occuied ours in November 1944. Mum was always disappointed because she had to funish it with utility furniture and bedding which was not as good a quality as the prewar furniture. She set and cried during the week before Christmas 1944 because her coal ration which was used in the grate to heat only one room of the house had nerly run out and she did not know if some more was going to be delieved to keep me warm over Christmas.

My uncle in Germany sent me a Christmas card printed just using three colours, red,green, and black. He managed to get a long sausage dog made from pretty foral material for his own daughter. Later he thought I have got a niece now and I would like to get her one too but by then they only had one in a dark brown colour. So Boo Boo came into my life. He was a favorite of mine and when his coat became tatty mum made him a coloured one. He was not the same like that so a dark one had to be made to make him acceptable again. My bath toy was a boat made from a plank of wood, shaped at the front to form a point or triangle and towards the back a rough rectangular cockpit had crudely chisled out. It was unpainted. As well as Lucy my rag doll made by my aunt while she had a broken wrist I also had a large teddybear made out of an old disgarded brown winter coat.

One day after Christmas mum took me in my pram for a walk along the seafront on the Holland on Sea side of the pier. She set me on the seawall and very soon afterwards that piece of seawall was destroyed by a V rocket. I can actualy remember where it was because it took so long to get it repaired. One day a piece of scrapnel from the guns on the seafront firing at planes or rockets landed in our backyard.

My mum took me in my pram for a walk along the top of the seafront cliffs towards Butlins holiday camp. I threw my ragdoll called Lucy out of the pram. Two soldiers off duty caught up with my mum and asked her whether the doll they had found and put on the concrete sugar lump was mine.

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