大象传媒

As a child I lived in the city of Kingston Upon Hull to give it its full title. It was severely bombed, as was Liverpool and Coventry. When war broke out I was seven. One very clear memory was going with friends to get our gas masks. We were a group of about six, no parents. We were trusted to take care and there were no great worries about our safety as there is today. Rosie had to take her little brother and we big girls were truly affronted when he got a Mickey Mouse gas mask and ours were a horrid black. We had tried them on and thought them queer. Mother's friend had a baby and she had to go in one like a bag that zipped up and you could just see her head through the perspex. That family had a large steel box-like air raid shelter, like a huge table in their dining room. As the bombing progressed it could be seen that many houses had their staircases still in tact and under there was where my mother and I went with cushions and covers. My father had been injured in WW1 but he went on 'fire' patrols at night. My mother made me a 'siren suit'. It was a top and trousers all in one with a flap at the back so there was no need to take it all off when going to the toilet.
I often stayed up late watching the enemy planes dodging the search lights. In the mornings we would be off out picking up the shrapnel. You had to be careful as it was often still very hot! My Infant school had a huge crater in the yard so we were all squeezed in to the nearest school.
Having the Docks and living near the great railway network meant lots of raids. Our next door neighbour was cut with flying glass when out one evening.
Many children were evacuated going off with a few things in a bag or small case, gas masks and labels on their coats. Pixie hoods, knee socks and short trousers for the boys were the fashion. The girls usually had a big bow of ribbon on one side sometimes pigtails. Often mothers had to cut down old coats and clothing to make smaller coats, skirts and trousers for young ones. Woman's Own often had hints on make do and mend and recipes for re-constituted dried egg and other war time necessities. As I had several aunts living in the country away from the devastation I was sent to stay with them for short periods. Hence I went to school in Leven, Bradford, Shelf, Long Riston and Hull. Many of these schools are still going 60 years on.
There was a great deal of 'help your neighbour'in those days. People dug up their bits of lawn to grow vegetables and chickens and rabbits were kept not for pets but food. Scraps of vegetables and food were sent away to be turned into animal food. Paper was scarce so you took a basket or home made bag to your local shop. There were rations of tea, sugar, butter,lard, margarine, eggs and bacon - how the list trips off my tongue now before I go to the supermarket! Everyone was doing their bit for the war effort and there were posters saying 'Is your journey really necessary' or 'Careless talk costs lives'. As I pass houses or parks I'm reminded of the time when the lovely railings and gates went off to build, I suppose, war machines. The stone kerbs with their holes where once there were railings...But the memories are there. I was 13 when VE Day came and I danced on the sea front in Bridlington.

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