大象传媒

Me and my sister were childhood evacuees, my sister was called Maragret and we were sent to the local town hall to be allocated a family to look after in 1941. North Shields was targetted to be bombed because of its location next to the shipyards. We were slit up, I was sent to Reedsmouth and my sister went to Bellingham, both in Northumberland. I was 11 at the time Margaret was 9. I remember Margaret being very upset but I thought it would be an exciting adventure.
My sister was so upset and could not settle, they eventually relocated me to Bellingham and I ended up in the house next door. The family I ended up with were not very nice. The guy had a motor bike which he kept in the local Blacksmiths, it woke up everyone in the village every morning when he used to start it up, the engine was so loud. I enjoyed living in Bellingham, it was so different to living in a city. The River Tyne was so different, waterfalls were a plenty up in Northumberland.
After a 18 month we were both moved agin to Falstone about 10 mile away to another family called the Cunningham family. She was a war widow and had a daughter at college and she took great care of you and my sister. It was a huge house and I had my own roon for the first time. It even had its own orchard.
School was one and a half mile away, we walked every day. I enjoyed school, the head master was a beautiful singer I recall.
I remember walking across a frozen River Tyne in winter, looking it back it was quite stupid because at the time I could not swim!! I stayed with the Cunningham family for nearly two years and didn't want to leave. My mother only visited once because money was very tight in those day sand travel expensive. We always wrote letters to each other.
I came back at the end of the war and it took me along time to settle and reajust to my life and my family. I started work at Hollands the flower merchant, one of the biggest in the North East. He used to send me to the Dolphin pub, North Shields to trade flowers for a bottle of whisky and he would often pop to the local butcher next door and share it in the back room while I looked after his shop!

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