大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Julia Shuvalova for GMR Actiondesk on behalf of Joyce Hilton and has been added with her permission. The author is fully aware of the terms and conditions of the site.

War seemed very far away. The summers were very pleasant and the leafy lanes, splendid shopping arcades and gardens of Southport began to grow on me. Such green spaces and elegance were hard to come by in Salford's terraced streets.

For the first time we had a garden and even an orchard at the back. We occasionally raided the orchard to steal a few apples but lived in terror of the owner coming round. There was also a doll factory nearby and when it was closed we spent hours on piles of discarded bits trying to match up brown and white limbs and heads to make a complete doll; a hopeless task.

I made friends with a girl who lived a few doors away. She admired my "fairy dress", a dress that I had worn just pre-war when I was a bridesmaid for Dad's cousin Hilda in Blackley. It was a beautiful dress made of pink organdie with a taffeta underskirt and puff sleeves. I had worn it to Seedley Council School when I was Titania's fairy in a Midsummer Nights Dream. She asked to borrow it and I happily lent it to her. When I next called for her I found out that they had moved and she had deliberately stolen it. It nearly broke my heart.

Norma came everywhere with me. My friends sometimes said "Oh, are you bringing her?", especially when she was a toddler. She would come out with a few choice swear words and aim a kick at their shins. She was growing into a lovely little girl with huge blue eyes and blond hair. One day I curled her rather straight hair all over with Mum's curling tongs, put on a pretty dress and we went on the train to Southport. She looked like Shirley Temple and a lady on the train asked whether it was naturally curly to which I said it was. If Mum was going anywhere she would wail "Who's minding me?" Eventually we used to call her "Who's minding me?"

They weren't unhappy times. Although we never really settled down it did get better in Southport. Dad bought me an old bike to go to school on. He answered an advert in the Southport Visitor and took me to get it on one of his leaves. It only cost 10/-. It was a pre-war 'sit up and beg' bike and I loved it. Best of all was the basket in front. I used it all through the war. Southport is a cyclist's dream - so flat. One day, a very wet one, my school friend Joyce Foxcroft from Salford turned up with a crowd of other youngsters on bikes. They had cycled from Salford in the pouring rain. She was only about twelve or thirteen. They filled our living room, sitting all over the floor. Mum rushed around making hot drinks and jam sandwiches.

It was a lovely surprise. Joyce and I had started school together at the age of four and kept in touch during our evacuation. I went down to her birthday party on my own from Southport by train and stayed with Gran. I travelled a few times like that. Mum would put me in a compartment with some 'nice' lady. It taught me to be independent. On one return journey I was sitting by the window talking to my friends when a young soldier got in and slammed the door shut on my fingers. He was filled with embarrassment. Fortunately two ladies in the carriage looked after me, bathing my fingers in cold water. I sobbed and sobbed until the pain wore off and could enjoy being cosseted. The ladies turned out to be two members of the Carl Rosa Opera Company.

When we were thirteen we were allowed to go potato picking for a month in the summer at local farms. There was a great shortage of farm workers as many men had joined the Services. The Land Army was formed and many young women volunteered, keeping the farms going and producing food so vital to the 'home front' as it was called. It was a long way for me to go and I was late every day. The girls picked in one field and the boys in the next field. It was backbreaking work as we followed the plough. One day the plough disturbed a field mouse with babies and the mother ran away. Eileen and I took the little mice home to "save them", but her mother went hysterical and wouldn't let us in the house until we drowned them in the outside lav. It still upsets me to think of those poor defenceless little creatures.

After a week I would have swapped it for the classroom, but no one else was interested in going back to school. The farmer's wife bought a huge jug of hot cocoa for our break. It was too far for me to go home at lunch times so Mum paid Eileen's mother 2/6d a week to let me have my lunch there. We always got it ready ourselves and had egg and chips every day. Eileen made lovely chips. At the end of the month we received our pay; 16/- (less than 拢1) and a big sack of potatoes between us! Eileen and I dragged them from the farm all the way back to Eileen's house, spilling half of them on the way.

During our breaks at school, Eileen and I practised dancing to "In the Mood" and "Jealously". She was learning ballroom dancing. I never hear those tunes without seeing us in the playground. We had excellent kitchens where we learnt housewifery and cooking. Lessons included laundry and looking after "babies" (in the form of a doll). The boys learned gardening and in the final year the roles were reversed, an excellent and quite advanced idea for the time. In addition to all the academic subjects, we played hockey and netball. Eileen was an excellent hockey player but I didn't like it at all. It was a very rough game. I enjoyed netball and country dancing and singing. There was a class singing competition every year.

At Christmas we had a very pleasant custom at school. We had a home-made post box where we could post our Christmas cards for our friends and they were 'delivered' in class. Presents had to be home-made and I made some necklaces and bracelets from shells collected from the beach. I stitched them onto a cord and painted them with dope (no, not that sort - it hadn't even been heard of) from a model shop where Derek Edwards bought modelling kits. They came out rather well and seemed to be much appreciated by my school friends.

Eileen got a job at a cinema in Southport. She was about thirteen and earned 2/6d a night and got a meal helping in the kitchen of the cinema restaurant. I begged my mother to let me work there too; she was very much against it but I did go for one night! Eileen had been promoted to selling ice cream and I got to peel potatoes - hundreds of them in a deep sink. I got my supper (something with chips) and my 2/6d but never went again. What with picking potatoes and peeling them, its a wonder I ever wanted to see one again.

Meanwhile Dad and Uncle Arthur were in their squadron, 925, serving in various parts of the U.K. One of his stations was Lichfield, Staffordshire, a bomber station and then he was up in Ayr in Scotland, a fighter and bomber base. He was then transferred to a USAF Mustang squadron in Northern Ireland. Working with the Americans was very nice for him as they were very friendly and gave him all sorts of stuff for us including various food items. He spent most of his time as a storeman although he was also an officer's batman at one point.

He was looking forward to serving overseas but just before the squadron was set to go to Europe he caught pneumonia and ended up in Victoria Hospital at Blackpool. He was very disappointed although it may have saved his life ironically. Uncle Arthur did go with the squadron and from then on they were separated. Uncle Arthur and Aunty Edna's marriage was then to go through a bad patch. Uncle Arthur met a WAAF while away on duty and wanted to leave Aunty Edna. She went mad, not wanting to lose him. Eventually it was resolved happily and Carol, their second child, was born. After the war they stayed many years in Birkdale, opened a guest house and retired in the area.

Meanwhile the war continued. Heavy raids were made against Manchester on May 8th 1941 and Whit Sunday June 1st 1941. Buildings on Deansgate were set on fire and the assize court devastated. Salford too was badly hit and amongst the casualties were 14 nurses who were killed in the nurses' home at Salford Royal Hospital. By 1943, however, things had quietened down with far fewer raids on the North West. Mum had enough of Southport and wanted to go home. Gran spoke to her landlord and he got us a house in the same street as her. I was sorry to leave Eileen. I told her we were going home and asked her to be my bridesmaid when I got married, and sure enough she was, many years later!

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