大象传媒

This is Kimberley Ward, of Southmoor Community School, Sunderland, entering Ron lawson and Les marshall' stories onto the website and they fully understand the website's terns and conditions.

When the world war II started in 1939 Ron and Les were just young boys aged six and nine, who had to live through the fight. When Ron and Les both found out about the war it was a dark, cold, windy night, they were confused and didn鈥檛 quite now what to expect, what live held for them. Now they are here to tell us about what it was like for them living through the war.
Both Ron and Les were rather lucky in the fact that none of them had family members who had to fight in the war. Which was great news because that meant they wouldn鈥檛 have sleepless nights worrying over their fathers or older brothers. No Ron and Les didn鈥檛 have to deal with that.
However both of there fathers did play an important part in the world war II. One of them was a train driver and the other helped making guns and other fighting equipment. So clearly you can see they were both needed at home and helped a great deal with the war.
But Ron and Les didn鈥檛 have ever think as good as that no they had to move to a shelter at night to make sure they were safe from the air raids. At first the would only go to sleep in the shelters when the siren went off, but as the war progressed it got to the point were they would get into bed and it would start going off, so they just decided it was easier and safer to sleep in the shelters every night. The shelters were a bit of a squeeze and were also damp, weren鈥檛 really the best living conditions in fact the floor was purely the earth you walk on. The sides were just metal sheets buried under the ground a number of the shelters would flood. There were different kinds of shelters according to the age, rank and number of family members. Ron and Les both stayed in what was called an Anderson shelter. Plus it was a good job they were moved into the shelters because many houses were damaged, many rueined, some only had as little as holes in the roof but even that still wouldn鈥檛 have been safe to live in. this would happen to many houses because if one of the streets were bombed it would completely ruein all of the houses in that street but it would also effect houses two-three streets down which is how many houses would get damaged.
When the shelters were introduced the food was rationed. This meant that they were only given a particular amount of food each week. So there diet was every different they couldn鈥檛 get food like fresh fruit e.g. bananas, oranges or they couldn鈥檛 get any other food that was imported during the war. Sweets were rationed too so you couldn鈥檛 just go into a shop and buy some like we do today. 鈥淲e would just eat raw carrots,鈥� says les. For meals they would eat a lot of dried egg, which you cant, get now but that would be cooked into many meals, unlucky for them it wasn鈥檛 very nice. Yet both Ron and Les said they were healthier then compeered to now.
This could have some think to do with all the exercise they did back then like us Ron and Les would play football and cricket but unlike the kids today who watch T.V and play on the play stations they didn鈥檛 they were always out playing active games. One game they played during the war (Ron鈥檚 personal favourite) was a game that was total influenced by the world war II and not really the most safe or cleaver game ever. They would go out to the battle field named guns field and collect pieces of shell bombs, the person who collected the biggest piece would win. So as you can see things have definitely changed since then.
Some things are still the same like when you are injured you go to the hospital. The hospitals were quite similar too e.g. the beds and wards. They actually had many similarities to the ones today. Although you would only go to the hospital if it was pretty serious. For example a baby would not be born in a hospital but at home 鈥渢he next door neighbour delivered our baby,鈥� said Les. The hospitals were a lot stricter then, says Ron. When it comes to things like visitors you were only aloud a limited amount at a particular time. And when food comes into it you were not able to choose what you wanted like we are now, they were just aloud what they were given.
When it came to things like doctors if they were aware of what they needed e.g. if you had a blocked nose like we do today they would use Vicks but they did use medicines what we don鈥檛 use any more like fenings fever cure. However they didn鈥檛 have any pain relief drugs like painkillers so if they had a head ach or summit they had no other chose but self-healing. You would always just go to the chemist because you didn鈥檛 need a prescription and it doesn鈥檛 cost for the doctor鈥檚 opinion that way. People could visit the doctors during the war as often as they like as long as they were willing to pay. If it was urgent you could get a doctor to come to the house.
It was the same with the dentist you would be able to go to the dentist when you like but you did need to pay. You wouldn鈥檛 go on a regular basis for check ups you would only go if you needed to e.g. if you had tooth ach. 鈥淢y dentist should have been a butcher,鈥� said Ron. 鈥淵er they would be really ruff,鈥� replied Les. So it鈥檚 still the same as today in the fact that people would fear the dentist but for different reasons I鈥檓 sure.
After the war finished when the NHS was introduced this all changed for Ron and Les. Things started to change straight away says Les. One thing they didn鈥檛 have to pay to go to the dentist or doctors any more. All Ron had to say was 鈥� things definitely changed for the better.鈥�

By Kimberley ward

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