大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer for CSVReading , Jim Grufferty,on behalf of John and Phyllis Chant of Salisbury and has been added to the site with their permission.

KINDNESS OF PEOPLE

The great thing during the war was the generosity shown to us from civilians. Two of us were in Northampton doing something at Donnington in our little utility truck. We went to the canteen run by civilians and the girl who served us a cup of coffee or whatever, asked where we were going to sleep. We had not thought about that yet. She said why don鈥檛 you come home with me, she did not know us from Adam. Went back to this big house, her father was an antique dealer in Northampton. We stayed the night, had a bath, fed us, they really made us welcome which was typical of the times.

Another time we were on a convoy in Scotland and pulled up by these council houses and a lady came out about six o鈥檆lock in the morning and asked if we would like a cup of tea. Two of us went in, she had just seen two of her sons off to work in the coalmines. She said she had some porridge would we like some. Thank you very much we said. Of course it was made with salt as it normally is in Scotland. We still ate it with pleasure.

My mother in law decided one Christmas to do a meal for some Americans based locally. Rations were very tight but she got some ham, only to find that one of them was Jewish who do not eat bacon or pork. This set her back a bit having gone to a lot of bother, but it meant more for somebody else.

On Christmas day the army tried to give a treat to soldiers who could not get home. I was stationed in London at the time, and we had our treat two boiled eggs each for breakfast. About thirty of us sat down to breakfast and the first one to cut open his egg found it was absolutely green with age, rotten. Not a soul could touch any of the others and all sixty eggs were left.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.