大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Departmentand Andrew Edwards, James Lovatt and Tom Wilkinson from the Darton Community School on behalf of Jennifer White and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

I was born in 1950. When I was 5 they took us out of school and showed us the shelter, we had to practise for a possible war.

My Mum worked in a butcher鈥檚 shop during the day and in the voluntary fire service at night. She had to alert the fire service vehicles and tell them where to go. There was no refrigeration in the butcher鈥檚 shop so they had to keep it as cold as possible all the time. Mum told me about her first banana, she loved it.

My Dad was too young to go into the army and he worked down the pit, he worked the night shifts, 5 pm to 5 am. He was a face worker and a deputy before becoming an electrical engineer at Grimethorpe Colliery. He used to get to work on a bike. He had to tape over the headlight with tape. He went everyday to see Mum, which meant him riding around ten miles a day to her house. Dad was injured in the mine a few times.

My Grandma was a housewife and my Granddad was miner and he was also in the Homeguard. He was a very little man my Granddad. He was on duty one night and heard a man talking in a foreign language he though he was a German spy and he arrested him then found out he was a polish farm worker.

Both Dad鈥檚 brothers were in the army one of my Uncle鈥檚 was a captain in the army and he was one of the first to land in France on D Day. He got a lot of medals. On Remembrance Day he presents a wreath at the Cenotaph in London. His wife died in childbirth while he was serving in Italy, he first saw his daughter when she was two years old.

My Granddad had a big garden and he kept chickens and they鈥檇 get a pig each year for Christmas. My family got lots of fruit and vegetables and meat thanks to Granddad and Mum! Grandma went early to market to get some good stuff cheaper.

There was a concrete air raid shelter for all the families about 4 or 5 houses away. It was cold, dark and dank, but they used to sing songs and tell jokes to keep everyone happy. Although Dad was scared of bombs he thought he would be safe under the bed. The shelter in my garden was used after the war for coal storage and a proper outside plumbed in toilet.

Mum and Dad didn鈥檛 see much bombing and at the time they were too old to be evacuated. They got married in 1944 and my Mum鈥檚 dress was made out of parachute silk. All the neighbours saved coupons to get them a wedding cake and they had a 2-day honeymoon in Scarborough.

They went to the cinema a lot. They also had their own piano so used to have sing songs like they did the shelter. There used to be dances at the church

Butter was still on ration in 1950.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.