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I was working at the chemist so I was able to stay there during the war.
Under supervision I did prescriptions and served. It was a private chemist and i liked it there.
I must have been around 18 years old.

I remember rationing — you were limited to what baby food you could get. You could only have so much each week.

We used to close earlier when the war started.
We kept open late one night a week.

I did fire watching once a week — you would sleep at the post office- about 4 of us there at a time.

There was a Royal Army Service Corp. base where I lived.
Different churches would put concerts on for the soldiers.

I used to go to the pictures three times a week and dancing. I lived at home. I was the only one.
My father was a miner so they needed the miners during the war and he didn't have to go away.

After the war in 1947 I came to work at Boots the Chemist. It was a very bad winter.
I met Albert. He was a Japanese Prisoner of War for three and a half years. He was on the railway.
He always said if they hadn't dropped the atom bomb they wouldn't have come back.
They were put in ditches ready to be shot.
We were married for 54 years before he died three years ago.

We had to queue for food, but I don't remember it being that terrible.
If you heard there were sausages at the butcher you would queue.
We didn't get a lot of fruit and things like bananas.

We celebrated the end of the war with parties.

I remember at 10.30am on Sunday morning listening to Neville Chamberlain on the radio when the war started.

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Lisa Reeves of CSV Action Desk Leicester on behalf of Audrey Booth and has been added with her permission.
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