大象传媒

The Second World War started while I was at school. This didn鈥檛 mean much to me, only that we had to have evacuees. Children from large towns like Coventry and Birmingham.
Mother was a member of the W.V.S (women鈥檚 voluntary services). One of their jobs was to deal with the evacuees when they arrived. The old school house in the village was the centre where they assembled after arriving by bus. Then they were taken out to homes that had been found for them to live in with families around the village. Anyone that had room to spare would have to take someone in, unless you had a very good excuse. The first group that came to stay with us were 3 girls from Birmingham. They had to go to my school, along with other evacuees in the village. The hall at the school was turned into another classroom for the new children, which would mean that we could not have dancing anymore. Also we now had to sit three to a desk instead of two until extra desks arrived. We had to share our books with the new pupils, get used to new teachers that had come with them who, were not at all nice, and hear dialect that was very different from our own. I had to share my bedroom with three strangers whether I liked it or not, this was hard as I didn鈥檛 have any brothers or sisters. We got on really well considering the situation, but they were homesick and wanted to go back with their parents when they came on their monthly visits. Often, my mum would be left with the evacuees that had no where to go. Late one night, after the Birmingham girls had gone home, mum had been out all day taking more evacuees to new homes. When she finished there was a lady and a baby without anywhere to stay, so they had to come to live with us. The fourteen month old baby boy, named David, had not had a nappy change or a proper feed from the time they left home in the morning. His bottom was so sore that he was unable to have a bath for a week, until it was healed. I spent a lot of time looking after him and, he learned to walk while he lived with us.
Another time we had a woman and four children staying with us. The front room of our house had been changed into a bed-sitting room for them; it included a double bed and extra camp beds. It was during this time that an incident occurred which brought to me the hardship that these people had to endure. While they were with us an unfortunate thing happened. The bread was still rationed so, we were limited to the amount we could have each week. As the toilet was outside and down a long garden path they had a large chamber pot under the bed, but the mother would never empty it until it was full to the brim. One day the children were playing, throwing a loaf of bread over the bed, when it fell onto the floor and the contents of the pot accidentally, splashed over it. The mother picked it up and dried it off near the fire and then made them eat it for their tea. I was going to have my tea with them that day, but I would always take my own sandwiches. That day I was glad bread was rationed!

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