大象传媒

I was aged 10 when WW12 broke out. I remember it vividly as I was a member of All Souls Choir and the vicar stopped the service to announce that we had declared war on Germany. After that things seemed to speed up tremendously. We were issued with gas masks in little cardboard boxes, and soon after, my old Dad said that we would be receiving an Anderson shelter. We hadn鈥檛 got a clue what that was all about, but we soon found out when it arrived, as it was all hands to the pump, so to speak. Before long, we had a huge hole in the garden, after digging up our beautiful rose trellis. In next to no time my Dad had run a flex from the back kitchen for lighting and a 2 bar electric fire (plugged into a light).
When I thought about it later on in life (I became an Electrical Safety Officer) I was terrified, we could have been electrocuted, the sides of the shelter were always running with water. We also had a sump, which we drained on a regular basis. Our next-door neighbour had a huge family, so the council built them a brick shelter. All the schools were closed, so we used to have classes in each others houses.
As the war progressed, of course, we were on rations, 1/2lb sugar per week, 2ozs of butter, etc. Life was tough but we stayed pretty fit. Friday morning at 5am my Mum used to send us down to Garston Market to queue for six eggs, what a luxury, we waited up to 3 hours at time.
After the bombing in Liverpool city centre I went with my eldest brother to see if the company he worked for was still intact, it wasn鈥檛. He was an apprentice fitter and had to be relocated. We had a problem finding our way through the rubbish and debris. Of course Lewis鈥檚 and quite a few big stores had been raised to the ground.
I used to catch the tram at weekends to stay with my Granny who lived in Everton. On one occasion an incendiary bomb came through the roof and landed on her pillow, lucky to get out alive. My Granddad was a docker and used to walk to work every day of his life. He was awarded the OBE for 53 years service with hardly a day off sick.
In 1943, at the age of 14, it was my turn to go out and earn a living, my old man said 鈥淲e鈥檝e kept you long enough鈥�. I ended up at Roote鈥檚 Securities in Speke, which at the time was making Halifax bombers. I used to hold the dollies for the knitters, 10 bob for a 48hour week. It wasn鈥檛 until later on when I got a job as an apprentice electrician that I was able to continue with my education, night school and day release. Whilst working in the aircraft factory I was able to supplement my wages by becoming a 鈥榩eggy鈥�, making the tea and getting sarnies for the lads. Of course I didn鈥檛 tell my mother about my extra income, I had to give her my unopened wage packet, 10 shillings, from which she would give me the princely sum of 1 shilling.
By the time we were 15-16 we were men of the world. We used to buy our 5 Woodbines from the machines located at the local rail station, 2d. We all had bikes, I built mine from parts picked up at the local tip. Weekends we used to cycle of into the country, I used to like fishing or we would go to the local flea pit to see Tom Mix and Gene Autry.
We were alerted one day, by the that a land mine had crashed through the gas works at Garston, we all had to be evacuated while it was defused.
In 1944 my eldest brother was called up into the navy, before going he married his childhood sweetheart. Of course there was hardly any money or food but we all had a jolly time, there was plenty of beer.
One of our greatest delights during the war was when my mum used to take us to New Brighton where we used to fish for crabs.
When I became an electrician, most of the work we carried out was bomb damage. We also had a contract to maintain the local army camps. On occasion I was sent out to install a Coca-Cola machine for the Yanks who had requisitioned houses in Crosby. They thought it was quite funny to see a young lad doing such work, but once it was up and running I was the local hero and showered with fags, gum and all sorts of goodies.

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