大象传媒

This story has been entered on behalf of Jean Gunshon by Age Concern East Cheshire in her presence.

I had only been evacuated from Manchester for a short while before my Mother took me back home. My sisters and brothers stayed out at Market Drayton but I was unhappy and came home to Chorlton-on-Medlock. The worst of the bombing was still to come and my Mother was very worried about it. We didn鈥檛 have a shelter of our own and there were no public ones in the street. The nearest shelters were 鈥楾he Caves鈥� in Stockport to the south of Manchester. Every night, air raid warning or not, we got the tram to Stockport. I remember this worked well because the air raids were always at night and we knew to get ready to go before it got dark. The caves were smelly and uncomfortable but we felt safe and my father was happier knowing we would not be harmed. From what I remember he was always working nights, even when he had a day shift he would only be home for a couple of hours sleep before he went back to work. My father didn鈥檛 go to the war because he was an aircraft fitter and so was in a reserved occupation. I remember he worked at Avros at Woodford. There was a special bus that went from Piccadilly to Woodford for the workers every day. He then walked back home from the city centre to where we lived about where the Apollo is now.

Our house did not have electricity; we only had gas for cooking and light. We had batteries for the radio which we took to a shop to be recharged. They were glass lead acid and I remember once getting the acid down my coat and getting in trouble for ruining my only coat.

During and after the war we were on rations. We were very short of money and to make ends meet my mother sold some of the sweet and clothing coupons to those who had the money. Most of the corner grocery shops used to run on 鈥渢ick鈥� and people paid at the end of the week when they got paid.

After the war the other four children came home which made seven of us and made life a lot harder than before. Also my mother had another four children which made eleven of us altogether living in a two up and two down back to back cottage with outside toilet. There were no such luxuries for us as toilet rolls we used newspaper cut up in squares with string threaded through. We all had a bath in front of the fire in a tin bath, the first in the bath getting the clean water; the last one got the dirty water.

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