大象传媒

I lived in Yeovil. We were quiet working class people. Suddenly there was an influx of these children. We thought they were awful. They had gone wild and didn鈥檛 know what the country was.

We had lodgers. There was no room for us to take in evacuees because of them. Many of the evacuees were used like slaves. People mainly wanted girls. I thought they were treated cruelly. The boys could cope with it better. They were rough and used to wee in the streets and see how high it went. I was gob smacked when I saw it. I just couldn鈥檛 take it in.

My mother told me not to go near them. It was a culture shock for all of us. There was lots of cruelty and that has stuck in my mind.

The evacuees were outcasts at school. They didn鈥檛 know the language. They couldn鈥檛 understand the Somerset accent. They were treated badly.

Lots of the evacuees didn鈥檛 stay. They went home but were re-evacuated.

My mother used to divide her ration books up and spend part in each shop. If the ration was ticked off in pencil she would erase the marks. She would then go to the other shop and use the ration coupon again.

The coalman would sell extra coal, although it was rationed. You knew if you had extra that he had cut someone else short.

My mother had lodgers to feed so getting enough food was a problem and she was always trying to cheat to get extra. My Father used to worry she would go to prison if she got caught.

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