大象传媒

In 1939 I remember standing at Leeds railway station with my two sisters and my mother and lots of other children.We all had our gas masks over our shoulder and a little pack of food which consisted of corned beef sandwiches and spreading cheese sandwiches which we all loved because we'd never tasted creamed cheese.My mother came with us because we were so young, I was four and my sisters were five and seven there were other children from our school(Mount St Marys).We were evacuated to East Markham Nr Retford in Lincolnshire.It was a big farm owned by a Mr & Mrs Bennett who had a little girl with lovely blonde hair.My father wasn't very happy about us all going and leaving him on his own, but my mother would not let us go if she couldn't have come with us.
I loved being on the farm it was just like going on holiday because we were so young we didn't realize how serious the reasons for us being there.There was always big baskets of apples in the house and Mrs Bennett used to churn the butter, I would think we were better fed than we were at home.The only thing which I didn't like was the toilet facilities, it was just a long piece of wood with a hole in the middle.I'd never seen anything like it.I was lucky because being the youngest I slept in a big double bed with my mother, with a pull on light switch over the bed I thought this was the last word in luxury and just kept pulling the switch on and off, I thought this was wonderful.My sisters weren't quite so fortunate they shared a bedroom with three other girls and one of my sisters fell out of bed every night.I never did know why?
My father was missing us so much he came to see us riding in a friend's sidecar of his motorbike with my uncle as pillion passenger. Unfortunately when they arrived the farmer was showing my mum and us children around the farm & orchard, and being a jealous man didn't like this.So when he went home he got a house in Scholes, which was way out in the country in those days, and brought us all back.So my lovely holiday only lasted about one month, but all my memories of being evacuated were good ones.

Josephine Burnett (nee Kennally)

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