大象传媒

Instead of going to college which was taken over by ATS, (Nevilles Cross college) we had to go out to schools teaching girls who were 16 and I was only 18 myself. I passed my teaching and I used to go to Fishburn school on the same bus which used to carry the 'munittions to the factory in Ferryhill. Because teaching was an exempt profession I used to voluneer at an agricultural camp. My brothers used to laugh because I lived on a farm and wouldn't do a hand's turn on the farm. We lived under under canvas and a lot of Irish girls came over to work. When I came home I scratched my head off - my head was full of nits. My mother was horrified. The Irish girls were good workers and we all became good friends, they came from a different world from me and they taught me a lot of new words which I had never heard before!!!
We were put into a huge field and there were endless rows of carrots, we picked them into baskets, we then had to top and tail all the carrots, then the farmer took them away.
When I went to the Vale of Eavsham it was fruit farming and I picked basets of lovely Victoria plums - we were allowed to take 2 baskets of fruit every week.
Because farming was a reserved occupation my 3 brothers weren't allowed to join up, they had to put up with a lot of abuse because people could not understand why they were at home and their own sons had been called up. My father was concious of the fact that his sons were at home and he never allowed them to really enjoy themselves. They tried to join up - even giving false ages but they were sent home. There is always 2 sides to every story.

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