´óÏó´«Ã½

I was 18 months when the war started so I don’t remember very much for a while. I remember these Micky Mouse gas masks though, I had one of those, and being taken along to be fitted for one, but we never had to carry them at all. I was born in 1943. I remember the blackout and the red light that was on the stairs at the side of the house, and I think there was a blue light in the bedroom I slept in. My Dad wasn’t away, he was in the Observer Core, so he went out at nights.

Hitler was a bogeyman. I remember at the end of the war wondering if he was really dead and my mother saying ‘yes, I think he is’ but we weren’t sure. But there was a sense of relief, even for a six year old. I can remember the bonfire we had to celebrate VE Day. The only celebrations I remember were at the bottom of Glenfoot, where I stayed. Among my friends there were very few Dads away, because they were all in reserved occupations. We used to practice with a stirrup pump, and the sirens used to go off. We didn’t have a shelter in the garden, only one person in the road did.

I was at the Academy which had a primary school in those days. We had two soldiers billeted on us. They were Englishmen. They were based down at Netherdale.

I remember after the war rationing continued — oh my goodness, the first cakes I saw, with jam and cream with them! In the war there were no sweet cakes. When rationing for sweets ended we used to queue, and enjoy cakes and all these little chocolate machines appeared in the stations. It was ages before chocolate and ice cream suddenly appeared again. I remember Fry’s Cream Chocolate. In those days, you never got a choice, and you were supposed to clean your plate — you ate up everything!

Collected by SBC Museums

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.