大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Enza on behalf of Bill Moran and has been added to the site with his permission. The authors fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was 7 when war broke out, I lived at 191 Manchesters Rd, in Kearsley with my parents, and two sisters Mary and Thelma. Dad applied to be a minesweeper, but he was refused because he was a collier and worked on the coalface. He worksed till he was 65. Not many lived to retirement, but he had 5 years. We all went as a family to collect our gas masks except dad who was working . They came down Manchester Rd. from the council, a man with a horse and flat cart brought the gas masks, which were piled up on the cart. We got ours, all in cardboard boxes. Very small kids got mickey mouse shaped gas masks with red nozzles. Ours were black with cellophane across an oblong gap so you could see. They weren't all that difficuld towear but the end piece was heavy, they made you sweat.
We never had to wear these masks, the nearest bomb to us was unity brook at Clifton, where my uncle lived. The bomb landed in the corner of a field near the row of houses he lived in. They were called the 12 houses and blew him out of bed!
The war didn't make any difference to us kids, except I noticed there was less food!

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