大象传媒

I was born in Nottingham in 1936 to Doris and Ted Walker who had met on a blind date at Nottingham Goose Fair in 1934. My father was a Railway Guard on the L.M.S. line, and his father was a Signalman - both reserve occupations, but long working hours, especially during the war. In 1940, when I was 4 years old, I had an operation for a hernia in the Nottingham Children鈥檚' Hospital. When the air-raid sirens went during the night, the nurses rushed into the wards and hurriedly pushed our cot beds into a safer place - I think it was in the corridors, away from the windows.

I caught scarlet fever during my stay and I transferred to an isolation hospital outside the city centre. My parents must have been worried, especially during the bombing. I remember their visits as they had to stay outside the ward. We just looked at each other through the glass partition and managed to talk a little - we were all very sad. They brought a toy doll in for me to play with, but it had to be left behind because of the risk of infection.

Back at home, we had to prepare black-out curtains. I had a toy sewing machine which did chain stitching and my father made all the curtains for the house on that machine.

When my brother was boring in 1943we had to take care not to show a light during the night when feeding him. The air-raid wardens would soon knock on the door if they saw a chink of light.

Clothing was scarce, but I was very lucky as I had handed -down dresses from an older cousin which fitted well. Her mother was a talented seamstress and did a lot of 'make-do-and-mend'. I remember the blouse 'fronts' which ladies wore under their suits. It was literally a piece of fabric (sometimes parachute silk) for the bodice part with ties over the shoulders around the back - to save fabric, of course. It was difficult to remove if you got hot!

A visit to the cinema was a very welcome treat in wartime. There was also the occasional Saturday evening social at the local school which was a real highlight. My mother's friend belonged to the local Catholic Church, and the nuns organised games and dancing to which my mother and eye were invited. I was the same age as the friend's daughter so we joined in everything. Once we won the Spot Waltz for which the prizes were either two cigarettes or a bakelite egg cup. My mother was a little disappointed with my choice of the egg cup! The nuns were really friendly and provided tea and orange juice during the interval.

I also remember doing some shopping for an elderly neighbour - an old lady, living alone. She gave me a penny plus some scones for our tea. They were warm, from the oven and delicious!

Once we had gone on holiday, and on our return our neighbours told that a bomb had dropped nearby. We went to look, but it was not very big and fortunately had landed in the middle of a wide road so no one was injured. I remember the search lights in the sky; they were very exciting to a young child and it was reassuring when my mother said "they would find them".

Like many areas, the railing from the green areas were taken away and used in the war effort. The children were then able to play on the grass, which was in a half-moon shape. It was on this half-moon that the end of war parties were held. Everyone joined in! There were lots of tables and chairs and plenty of food. Flags and bunting was brought out. It was really exciting and the adults danced long into the evening, after the children played pass the parcel, blind man's buff, charades and a sing song. I wore my best dress (usually just for Sundays) plus some shoes which were part of my bridesmaid's outfit. They had been black, but were painted silver for a recent wedding. I wore them on the grass, but my mother didn't seem to mind - it was a very special day!

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Keith Ruffles of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Shirley Padley and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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