大象传媒

-.When the war started I was ten, soon after my mother was told that we would have to have soome evacuees. The lady came and looked to see how many bedrooms we had, there were three so she said my sister and I could share and we could take in two children. In the end we had three because they were two sisters and a brother who did not want to be separated. I don't remember how long they were with us but in the end their mother came down and they were given a house of their own.
All through the war we had to carry our gas mask about everywhere we went and we had gas mask drill at school to see how fast we could put them on. School changed as soon as the war started, everytime the siren went we had to walk out in twos, up through the Church gates, up the parh to the Church rooms and then through the hedge into the field where there was as big air raid shelter and we would stay there until the all clear went. I don't think it was very light in there because we didn't to any work.
When the evacuees came we had to make room for them at school which was very cramped, the desks were pushed together so instead of two to a desk there was three. There were days when we would have to go the the Baptist Church and have lessons, other days in the garage of Lady Bingley's house, The Causey, or in the British Legion.
We had school dinners under the stage in the Cranleigh Village Hall, they were not very nice to put it mildly but I suppose they did not have much to cook with. I remember my friend found a tooth in the stew and you always knew what was coming - fish on Friday. I have never been able to eat fish and rice to this day. For pudding one day it was rock buns, you could have broken your teeth on them. One day we had mashed potato with cheese on top and my friend said she liked it and she ended up with everyone's helping piled on her plate.
At home we had powdered egg, which I loved, and lots of vegetables as my dad had an allotment as well as our garden.
My friend and I went out picking up acorns for the pigs, I think we got paid and we picked rose-hips for syrup to give us vitamin C
We went with other children to look for iron on the common, asking if people had any old saucepans.It was used to make planes They took Alderbrooks big iron gates during War weapons week
We went up on stage with my class and sang the Volga Boat Song and others and ended up singing Jerusalem.
We went to school one day in 1941 and there was a dogfight overhead while we were all out to play.Two planes got shot down and the pilots could be seen floating down,it was avery windy day so they must have been blown a long way.
Also in 1941 we saw a plane flying very low and we thought it would crash, it came right over our house and made my sister cry with fright and fear that it would crash on the greenhouses where we all worked but it came down in a field called Thorn Flush.All the German airmen were killed and I have still got a piece of the plane.
In 1943 I started work in a house on the Common. One day as I was coming home on my bike I heard a doodle bug coming. I was nearly home so I pedalled faster and got indoors just as the engine cut out. Mum and I got under the stairs. It landed and there was a big bang. I got on my bike and rode back to Cranleigh to where I worked. The people there lost all their windows and their curtains were in shreds. I helped clear up and then came home. Poor Mrs Ede was killed as it went in the gasometer and a lot of people were badly injured.

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