大象传媒

I was five years old when WW2 started. So my sister who was eight, and I, along with about fifty other children, was evacuated from Wallsend where we lived half a mile form the shipyards, to a little village called Glanton in the heart of Northumberland.
We were billeted near a big house in the outskirt of the village which was owned by a Major Huston Boswell that had been commandeered by the Army. I was with Mr and Mrs Hosie who also had four daughters and a son. He was a chauffer/Groom for the Major and my sister with the Gardeners family Mr and Mrs Short.
It was a bit of a culture shock at first from town to country, but we had fun, we did potato picking, helping with the harvesting, blackberry plucking and a lot more. I often got rides in a Bern-Gun carrier or Army Tucks when the soldiers took them out to the roads.
I remember one day while playing in a field, a twin engine plane flew over and we all waved like mad. We found out later it was a German that had lost his way!
We used to get rough winters, one time being cut-off from school for a week, which was only half a mile down the road!
Food was pretty basic, scotch porridge, with salt not sugar, home made girdle Stones and everything cooked on a wood fire. We also got dried egg in tins, which made lovely scrambled egg and drinking chocolate from the states. I even still have some of the Joy we were sent!
Sometimes the soldiers put concerts on in the village hall and the odd dance. As a special treat we went to the pictures in Alnwick. Sweets and ice-cream were rare so we made so with Victory V Lozenges. We used to get home now and again, but most nights were spent in the Shelter, because of air raids.
We were lucky to have two good families to stay with, as some evacuees had terrible times, and we still went to visit them well after the war was over.

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