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Although there were some tough times and for some, terrible times when we saw the Pathe News reels about Belson and other atrocities, there were also good times. Meeting London evacuees, they couldn’t sound their ‘Th’s’ and the teachers (who were mostly women because the men were away) would go bananas trying to get them to say ‘the’ instead of ‘ve’. Quite a few came back to live in Leicester as did some ex German prisoners. We had some great street parties and bonfires to celebrate VE day and again when we did the same on VJ day.

I always remember with affection the way my mother ensured we always had good solid food. Dig for Britain was the order of the day and during those years we grew almost everything in the gardens including digging up the front garden and lawn to grow vegetables. In the garden we also kept rabbits, chickens, ducks, apples and plum trees. We also had red and black current bushes and blackberries and raspberries. A lot of bartering went on during those wars years. Because we had a bigger family then most some of our rations were bigger like sugar coupons. Mum would swap these for vest material so we would be warm as well. Mother was a good basic cook and would make jam and Dad would make toffee apples. I could go on and on but I won’t. I have come to one conclusion when the chips are down there are lots of ways of overcoming most problems but war will never solve them.

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