大象传媒

Mrs Walters

This woman was only 10 when the war started. She went to school for only half a day. She always had to take a gas mask to school. All she can remember is that war was declared on a Sunday. On one occasion the barrage balloon got caught on the chimney of their house and pulled it down, causing a lot of soot to fall. Her uncle was a P.O.W. Her dad was part of the home guard and died of cancer. One childhood memory that she has was her dad coming home after finding a dead body that was an old friend and was very upset. Her mum worked as a grocer and they did deals together to try and stop the hunger. As a part of the ration they would eat dried egg. Sweets were only in the rations on a few times and it was a very nice treat. She used blackout curtains and there were no lights in the streets but she still felt very safe. She was 16 when the war ended and she remembered dancing in the streets with the rest of the street in joy. She was very sad when her father died. Her mother couldn鈥檛 afford to buy a new black jacket for her husband鈥檚 funeral so she had to dye a normal jacket black. She said larger families would sell clothes coupons for extra money. Also she said if the siren blew before 12 noon then it was fine to go to school but if the siren was blown after 12 noon then she wasn鈥檛 allowed to go to school.

Mr Walters
Mr Walters was 12 when the war started. He was a reserved occupation and was disappointed not being able to go to war, he was very sad not to be involved as he thought he missed a lot comradely. He told us about how hard it was at home finding things to sustain them. He told us as England was an island it was very hard to get resources to it without the ships bringing the resources being sunk. He told us 40,000 ships were sunk. He also told us of how they would try and use comedy to make the days easier to live. He had a large family and his Father was based in Italy and his brother was based in Kenya. When he went to school he told us of how he enjoyed it so much being a little scamp and he was always getting the cane. He told us of how he found his teachers strange (I know how he feels). He has lived in Redcar all of his life. He also remembered barbed wire being put all along the sea front and how the iron railings at his local park were taken away and used for ammunition. He worked on a farm, which he enjoyed. He told us that he worked with 4 Germans before and during the war. He was friends with most of them apart from one, who he said was very mouthy, so Mr Walters threatened him with a knife and the German wasn鈥檛 as mouthy anymore. He told us that they were very lucky with the bombing. He told us a story about his brother leaving his shoes in a building and when he went back to retrieve them the building blew up when he was about 50 feet away. He told us about the social side of his life and told us he went too many dances. He said that when the war was ending and jive came into fashion many people started to wear stranger clothes. For instance green shirts and yellow ties, he found this very amusing. This was just a small story from two war veterans, Mr and Mrs Walters.
By Thomas Lynn & Gareth Gibson

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