大象传媒

I'm a pupil from Prudhoe Community High Scool, Northumberland, entering Sam Vinton's story onto the website, and he fully understands the website terms and conditions of use.
3rd September 1939, I was 11 years old. My sister, mother, father and grandfather live in West Benwell, Newcastle. The first I knew about the war was that very day my friend and I were playing in the back lane, when fighter planes flew over our heads. It was amazing. We were gob smacked. Standing there in awe we heard my friend鈥檚 dad shouting at us to get inside the house, his father was home on leave from the RAF. He chased us into the house where we were told they were German fighter planes coming over to bomb us. The war really didn鈥檛 seem that big a deal to me, being 11 I didn鈥檛 really understand the seriousness of it. We played fighting games pretending to be soldiers, it was all fun to us. The black out caused me some trouble, only because I ran in to a telephone box in the dark leaving a permanent scare across my nose. Other things like queuing up for hours on Scotswood road to get gas masks, or having air raid drills in school and having to 鈥渨alk calmly鈥� to the stone shelter on the grounds, there was hell on if you ran. These things didn鈥檛 bother me that much, being a kid I took it in my stride and thought it was great watching the planes fly over head or seeing the search lights scan the sky. The best part though had to be not going to school in the morning if there had been an air raid in the night, but the worst was going to school only to find that there had been an air raid. Both my parents were deaf and dumb so my sister, grandfather and I had to warn them if there was an air raid, except during the night my granddad never woke us up to tell us about the raid, so the next morning after trailing to school we found it wasn鈥檛 on.
About three months after the war had started I was told I was going to be evacuated to a place in Cumbria. My sister and friends were all going to different places to me. It was about mid day when my mum and I got to Scotswood Station. It was packed full of noisy little children shouting and running about. Only my mum was there to see me off, my dad was at work and my sister was on a different train to me. I was quite sad about leaving my family and friends鈥�, not knowing what was happening or whether I鈥檇 see them again. But on the other hand I was looking forward to it, I thought it was just like going on holiday, I鈥檇 never been any where on holiday before. But as the train started to pull away from the platform I realised that it wasn鈥檛 just like a holiday and I wanted to get off and go home, but it was to late the train had left. The train was packed, there were no aisles, just seats full of children, each with a little bag of essentials, gas mask slung over one shoulder and a sticky label saying where you were going to live for god only knew how long. We all knew where we were headed for just not who we were staying with. I was heading for Malem in Cumbria. When the train arrived at the station children destined for that place were pulled off, then we were told who we were going to live with. I was going to stay with a farmer, his wife and their 2 sons. One was about 14 years old and just about to leave school, the other was nearly 16 years old he worked on the farm, following in his dad鈥檚 foot steps.
The farmer鈥檚 house was 2 miles away from the village, and very secluded. I hated it. The house was large, 4 bedrooms, big living room and large kitchen, it had loads of fields surrounding it, and it had a yard where they kept pigs, chickens, and cows. Of course there was the little patch of land used to grow vegetables mainly potatoes, everybody with grass grew potatoes. The house itself was very rural and cosy, you know the 鈥渞ough and ready鈥� type of house. The outside of the house always stunk of animals and everywhere you walked you stepped in something disgusting. Inside the mum was always cooking and plucking chickens, she had piles of feathers, thousands of them. Every time you saw her she was either cooking or plucking a chicken, I never found out what she did with those feathers. The farmer was always working in the fields or with the animals, they sold a lot of their animals and vegetables.
Life was quite different in the country and I started to miss the town, especially during the week when I had to get up at 5:30 am. I鈥檇 get up, do my chores, which were things like feeding the chickens, collecting the eggs or my favourite time at the farm, and I really was pleased to have learnt this, milking the cows for milk for breakfast, the two older lads used to pick on me at the farm they used to make me do their chores during the day. I would then have breakfast which was Bacon, fried eggs or boiled eggs, a bit like an English breakfast, except we had tripe with every thing. I hated tripe, it was disgusting, and we had it with every thing. After breakfast it was on to school which was pretty normal, except from the odd air raid drills. After school there was more chores to be done like milking the cows again, or taking them into the fields. The farmer used to tell me that if I didn鈥檛 behave properly that he would stick me in the middle of the field and tie me up to act like a scare crow. Dinner wasn鈥檛 as bad as we had meat (bacon or chicken) potatoes, turnip and cabbage, this is what was grown in the vegetable patch. We had so many potatoes, the barn had mountains of them, I was amazed they didn鈥檛 go off, because we couldn鈥檛 have used them all, there was just too many.
Weekends weren鈥檛 much different, up at 5:30 to start the chores, there was no such thing as a weekend on a farm or a lay in for that matter. Once they were finished I went in to the village, as the 2 lads who I lived with refused to play with me so I had to find my own entertainment. I loaned a bike off the farmer and would cycle where and every where I could, I would explore the village or the fields. When I cycled the 2miles in to the village, I鈥檇 get I little bit of money for doing the chores during the week, and I鈥檇 spend it in the local sweet shop. My favourite were Aniseed balls, little red balls, they tasted so good, I loved them. The village was the only place I could go as the other town was miles away, but they had markets and shops there. The only place in the village was the sweet shop and the local pub, so there wasn鈥檛 much for me to do around there and I didn鈥檛 now where my friends had gone. The village used to hold a barn dance about once a month, in someone鈥檚 barn, it was in the evenings and we had a live band playing. There was a buffet where everyone used to compete for the best cakes and other food, it was lovely food. I had to wear my Sunday best for the dance as it was a special occasion in the village. I always had the best shoes because my dad was a cobbler, he made me the flashiest shoes among everyone else.
It must have been after about a week when I decided that I was going to leave, I had to get home, I hated it in that farm. It was to quiet and secluded, I don鈥檛 think I would have minded much if I had been in the village but we were so far away from every one and there was nothing to do on the farm. I had made friends in the village school but I didn鈥檛 know where they lived and I missed my old friends who had been sent to other places. I missed Newcastle, it was only a ten minute walk from my house in to the city centre, where there was shops, markets and anything else I needed, but the farm was all alone and miles away from civilization. I wanted to be back in Newcastle so much. I also missed my parents and sister loads, I knew my parents needed me to help out with the air raids because they were deaf and dumb, so I had to get back to them.
6 weeks later I got up at 5:30 did my chores, had breakfast, got ready for school and left a note in my room explaining that I was going home. I took the bike to school, where I left it, and headed towards the nearest road. I knew that if I could get to Carlisle it was a straight road home. I took my little belongings in a small bag and started to walk along the road trying to hitch a ride with some one, but it was mainly farmers with trucks around there so I got a lift in the back of a truck to Carlisle, where with the little money I had saved and taken with me from Newcastle I tried to get the bus to Newcastle but I didn鈥檛 have enough money. So I bought a tea and ate the sandwiches I had packed for lunch at school. After I finished them I started to walk towards Hexham because I knew the general direction of Newcastle now, I got a lift to Haltwistle where I started walking straight away and got a lift from there in to Haden Bridge. I was really tired and hungry, I had been up and walking a long time. I then got a lift in to Hexham where I got the bus in to Newcastle. I had been on the go for nearly 14 hours, and all those early mornings had caught up with me, but I was ecstatic when I arrived home and greeted my parents.
My parents were annoyed at me for running away, but were pleased to have me back. My dad had to go to the police station to report that I had come back home, as the family I had stayed with had reported me missing. My dad was going to send me back but they opened the school so I was allowed to stay at home. A few weeks later my dad went to get my sister and brought her back home, she wasn鈥檛 happy where she was staying. My father said 鈥渋f we鈥檙e going to get killed, we can all go together鈥�. It hadn鈥檛 worked out us all being separated, so we stayed together throughout the war, each doing what was needed to help the others.

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