大象传媒

im a pupil from prudhoe community high school, northumberland, entering edward robson and betty robson's story on the the website,and they full understand the website terms and conditions of use.

I was 19 when the war started; my birthday was just 8 days before the Germans declared war. My life was so good; I had a fianc茅e called Edward and was pregnant with our first child. Until one day. It was about half ten in the morning, myself and Edward were sitting at the table listening to the radio, we couldn鈥檛 hear it very well because of all the crackling, however we could hear well enough to know that war had been declared. I was so frightened that I began to cry. From that moment on, my life was turned upside down. Edward was exempt from the war because he worked down the mines, which probably the only nice thought I had on the war, because I knew that the person I loved and cherished the most in the world, would still be alive once the war was over.
We were sat at the table for over an hour, we didn鈥檛 speak a word. My sister who lived next door to us (Nancy) came running in, stopped at the kitchen door and burst into tears. The sirens started howling, all three of us walked to the front door, opened it. We watched as Nancy鈥檚 husband was driven off to fight; I could see the loneliness and pain in her eyes. Then I realised how lucky I actually was. The streets were filled, hundreds of children, mothers and fathers running around trying to get to the air raid shelter (Anderson shelter), as they were known back then. Me, Edward and Nancy made our way to the air raid shelter, we stayed there for about 24 hours, until things calmed down a bit.
A few days later I was due a scan to see how my baby was doing. The baby was fine but I was about 2 shillings poorer. Just imagine, one week earlier and it wouldn鈥檛 of cost me a penny. That鈥檚 wasn鈥檛 the only thing we had to pay for, we had to pay to go to the dentist too.
During the war, everyone was given a ration book, which only allowed you to have a certain amount of food each week. Which didn鈥檛 really help when I had a baby on the way. Once my baby was born life was so hard. Then I was told that I had to go and work. Luckily for me, I was issued with a job as a schoolteacher, where I could help children who were going through difficult times and all. It was also a good job to have because my son was about 3 at this time, so he was able to come with me and be taught, which meant that I could be with him all the time when he was growing up, that鈥檚 the reason we are so close now. When John and me were at school, Edward was in a horrific accident at work, when he was in the mine a wall collapsed on top of him and we all thought he was dead, but amazingly he recovered and lived until he was 83.
After the accident in the mine, Edward was given a new job, he was an ARP, and this was a person who went round all the streets on a nighttime checking that you had no lights on. This was so that when the German planes came over looking to bomb cities, they couldn鈥檛 see any because there were no lights on. This was called the blackout.
About three and half years into the war, every person who had iron railings surrounding their garden had to give them to the people who made ammunition.
We didn鈥檛 have any evacuees come to stay with us, but a couple of the people who lived down the streets did. The evacuees weren鈥檛 bad children, although they did have a tendency to steal things from the corner shop. In my eyes they were just frightened little children, who have had to leave there family, not knowing that they will be there when they return.
The food during the war was really healthy, because all it was was home grown vegetables and meat if you were lucky. If I had no meat, I would have made a leek pudding or something like that. None of this 4-minute meal stuff you have these days. Of course it was much healthier back then, not only the food but also the children were a lot fitter too. They didn鈥檛 have play stations or televisions to watch, no they had to make there own entertainment.
Edward and me didn鈥檛 get married until the war ended. Getting married was the happiest day of my life, just knowing that I was going to spend the rest of my life with someone who loved me, cared for me and respected me.
Once the war had ended, I kept on being a teacher, because I felt as if I was doing something for someone who appreciated me being there and needed me to make them into some of the amazing people they are today.

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