大象传媒

Mavis Pinches was 7 years old when world war two started. She lived in Shortheath, near Willenhall, West Midlands. Mavis had one sister and stayed with her family, throughout the war.
Where she lived, evacuees were sent and had started at her school and had seemed to settle in very well. Her father had worked in a factory and had to obey very strict rules. To Mavis, the war didn't really mean anything, as she was far too young to understand. No one had any toys but it didn't matter as everyone was the same. She didn't know any different and carried on as usual. She didn't understand that bombs would kill many people near by. Many bombs had been dropped just two blocks away from where Mavis lived. Mavis, " I thought that my father had been killed at one point as bombs had been dropped very near his factory." Mavis' uncle was also thought to be dead but had actually been imprisoned in Germany. When he arrived back at home, he had long hair and was painfully thin.
Rations were also an important matter during the war. The main people of whom it affected were all of the parents. Ration books were all colour co-ordinated, white were for adults, blue for school children and green were for babies. This book would allow you to get rarer facilities such as oranges, bananas e.t.c when they were available. There were very long queues for food off the ration. Chocolate was fairly rare. Cadbury's chocolate was alot more popular than any other chocolate bar. Occasionally, people would be treated to some Quality Street. They would sometimes be kept behind the counter and handed to the customer but they weren't very often seen. Even today, food is saved as a result of the war. Everything was taken for granted and Mavis thinks that too much is taken for granted today. She thinks that the main thing that people take for granted today is money. She thinks that people don't think before they buy things. She says that they just go straight into a shop and buy whatever sweets of clothes that theywant without thinking. During the war, there wasn't much electricity for people to use. In Mavis' house, there was no electricity at all. The whole house was gas. This meant that they could never watch any television although it had been invented. This didn't bother Mavis and her family though. Gas masks were no problem and everyone would just put them on with no question. No one were allowed to travel so people just had what they called, 'holidays at home'. It was sort a carnival with sports competitions and otherfun games. Everyone during the war got on and no one ever argued. Some families would go down to the subway and come back to find their house gone. Mavis' main memory was from when D-Day came and this was the first time she had seen fireworks and everyone was immensley happy.

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