大象传媒

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Anderson Shelters were always so cold and damp. Full of spiders and other creepy crawlies. We'd go down there and the one thing that we must always have with us would be mother's handbag - it would be full of all out important documents and certificates, insurance policies, money and whatever jewels the family had.
We would take a flask of tea and some currant loaf. A treat would be a saucer with a spoonful of sugar and a spoonful of cocoa powder mixed together and we'd dip our fingers in! You would always take your gas mask, a torch and a radio down to the shelter so that you knew what was going on.
We used to entertain ourselves in the shelter - one lady recalled teaching younger children to knit.

many people used the cellar as a shelter - it would have been cleaned out and would generally be fairly comfortable. The blankets etc would already be in there when the siren sounded. Lots of people hid in the cubby hole under the stairs - some lovely stories about creeping about in the small space with a candle. Hiding under the kitchen table was also common - many people recalled having steel tables

The School air raid shelter was not fondly remembered. One lady remembered the air raid warning sounding in the middle of the class Christmas party. Everyone trotted off to the shelter in their glad rags and party hats with gas masks at the ready! The memory included one lady's mum turning up to collect her before the all clear had sounded and the teacher being so relieved to see her that she tried to make her take several other children home with her too!

Everyone remembered the Morrison shelters but didn't have any real memories o using them. We did have a memeory from a lady who had been at the Broadway cinema in Meir when the sirens went - they were all evacuated in to the basement of the Kings Arms pub nearby. They were stuck there until alomst 3am - by which time Dorothy's mum was absolutely frantic!

We talked in some detail about air raid shelter sing-songs. Favoured artists that were recalled included - Flanaghan & Allen, Vera Lynn, Ann Shelton and Al Bowley.
The songs recalled included:
A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square
Run Rabbit Run
White Cliffs of Dover
Chattanooga Choo-Choo
Underneath the arches
When the lights go on
Goodnight sweetheart
Roll out the barrel

and so on.....

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