大象传媒

鈥淚 was 4 years old when I was evacuated from Tottenham, I say evacuated but that was not strictly true as I was taken by my mother to Cwm, in South Wales. My Aunt lived their. We went by train.

Cwm is in a valley, at one end of the valley, there was a mine. Most of the men from the village worked in the mine. My Aunt lived in a two bed roomed house, when I arrived there were 8 of us living in it. I shared a bed with my cousin and my Aunt and Uncle, also slept in the same room and in the other room was another Aunt, my Gran and two more cousins. I was the youngest, which made bath time interesting. It was always on a Friday night, a tin bath in front of a coal fire, being the youngest I was always last. We all had to share the same water and there was no privacy.

The village had 2 schools one at each end. I started attending one school, but because of the number of evacuees, they opened a special school in the village hall, which was attended by all of us. Eventually I attended the village school. Everyone was friendly and I made lots of friends, some that lasted after the war had finished.

Living in Wales was fantastic. At the bottom of my Aunts garden were the mountains, I used to spend hours playing on them, and they were covered by ferns. We used to make camps in the summer and in the winter we used to get an old ladder and slide down it in the snow.

The Milkman used to live at the top of the mountain, he used to deliver the milk using a horse and cart, he would come down in to the village and we would go out to the cart with jugs and fill them straight from the milk churn. In the winter he used to have a sledge pulled by dogs to deliver the milk.

Sundays, what a day, we had to go to Chapel 3 times on a Sunday, first at 11am, then to Sunday school from 3 pm to 4pm and back to Chapel at 6pm. I used to go and hide up the mountain, so I didn鈥檛 have to go back to Chapel at 6pm. My Aunt would come in to the back garden and call me, but I never came down until I heard her leave for Chapel. After Chapel we would go for a walk, when we returned my other Aunt would give us a square of chocolate, as it was rationed.

At Christmas, I was given an apple, an orange and maybe a toy car.

Food was different, I remember eating a lot of Faggots and Peas and I used to throw my school dinner out of the window, until I was caught doing this. School dinners were not very nice.

I really enjoyed my time in Wales, even though my Aunt was strict. I was very unhappy when I had to move back to Tottenham, I used to sit and look out of my bedroom window and watch the other children playing. At night I would go to sleep wishing that it was all a dream and that I would be back in Wales.鈥�

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