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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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The Allclear Siren

by Sunderland Libraries

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Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by听
Sunderland Libraries
People in story:听
Ron Littlemore
Location of story:听
Sunderland, Tyne and Wear
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A7662819
Contributed on:听
10 December 2005

Being born in 1935 I have vague and vivid memories of wartime childhood in Sunderland. Memories of air raid warnings being sounded and my mum hastening my older brother and me to the underground air raid shelter in the local hospital grounds, wrapped in blankets. No time for us to get dressed. Searchlights scanning the skies, the rumble of anti aircraft fire, the sombre ill lit shelters, quite cheerless. Our home sported a brick air raid shelter which, on reflection was quite useless. One night as we fled to it my hair was showered with incendiary bomb sparks, my mum muffled my head with her coat to extinguish the sparks. The communal shelters had no amenities i.e. toilets, heating or facilities for making tea etc. We past the time best way we could playing I Spy etc, one man used to draw pictures of us on the wall of the shelter, another man played mouth organ and folks sang to raise their spirits, some tried to sleep. People had to get on with life i.e work and school the next day. Enemy raids were frequently carried out unexpectedly . When the all clear siren went every one returned home cautiously. Sometimes homes had been bombed, destroyed because we lived close to the shipyards and factories involved in the war effort. On weekends people used to view the considerable bomb damage, as schoolboys we colleted pieces of shrapnel (why? I don鈥檛 know) and brass military buttons and badges. As the war progressed and the bombing, my brother and I with other children from Hylton Road School were evacuated to the village of Carlton in Yorkshire. What a different World! We helped the Army Land Girls with Wheat Harvesting looked after sheep, pigs and cows. Peace and tranquillity, church on Sundays, no bomb damage. Writing on slate boards with chalk at school. My Dad worked away from home and we rarely saw him. When the bombing of Sunderland eased we returned home, however rationing of food, clothing coal and furniture continued, what a blessing for our mothers to receive from our Canadian Allies such luxuries as Chocolate Powder and Egg Powder, much appreciated in those austere times. Grocery shops, butchers and fruit shops had little to display and bananas were a rare site indeed. The ladies used to were leg makeup with a black mascara line down the back of the legs to look like seams. Nylon stockings were out of the question. Suddenly on the scene appeared brightly coloured plastic wire and all the women made necklaces, bracelets etc for costume jewellery. Industry was also hard pressed by shortages of coal steel etc. and steel railing were commandeered from peoples homes and used in the war effort. No sweets for school children and the nearest we got to 鈥淜et鈥 was Spanish sticks, liquorice root from the chemists. Oh Yes! And sticks of cinnamon which we kids used to smoke like out heroes on the silver screen. The plastic Silver Screen truly was the opium of the masses.

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