大象传媒

My father kept pigs on the edge of a huge field which was part of the family land adjacent to our orchard facing Wheeler End Common. He was not a farmer though. Keeping pigs was more of a hobby as he was a local builder, and a Mr Shotter ( I kid you not, that was his name!) was the manager of the 20 or so pigs.I loved going down to see them and strained over the low brick walls to watch them snorting in their feed. I say "straining" as I was only around three at the time. I wanted to go back home and the quickest way was across the field.
I can't remember what was growing it it, only that Land Girls were needed to pick whatever was there. Some of them were in a small group and one of them spoke to me. She held my hand and said" Walkie round the garden -like a teddy bear. One step, two step, tiggly under there!" as she walked her fingers round my little hand, up my arm and tickled me under it. I laughed and left, trotting over the earth towards a gap in the hedge that bordered our garden. I bent down to pick some flowers and glanced back to the women in the field. There was this loud buzzing noise. They suddenly dropped what they were doing and ran. That scared me. Why were they running? What was the noise?
I stayed crouching on the ground, holding on to my flowers. The raucous buzzing stopped. The field was empty. All went silent. I looked through the garden towards my home. Then...BANG!
I was so frightened and I just burst out crying. My mother must have been in the middle of making one of her crumbly cakes, as she came running out towards me, her hands clogged with flour.
It was sometime later that I learnt that a doodle-bug had dropped in Lane End, less than a mile from where I was. My father told me that the force of the blast blew some man over in his garden but nobody was killed fortunately. I was so glad my mother came out of the house, otherwise I could have been riveted to that spot near the hedge for ages. I can hear her now, "Christine, where are you? Christine!" anxiously waving those white hands.

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