大象传媒

On the 3rd Sept 1939 I was 12 years old and in morning Sunday School. We were dismissed and told to go home quickly. I did not see a soul on my 15 minute walk 鈥� the streets were deserted. My father was lighting the fire. He said 鈥淚 expect your mother has told you there is a war on鈥�. She had. Soon Army trucks drew up outside and parked in our main road. Mother gave the occupants a whole batch of teacakes fresh from the oven. I was horrified. My aunt came down for the day from London by train. I had just completed my first year at Luton High School, Bedfordshire. Father was foreman at a small engineering company making metal spiral staircases. He was 39 years old. Mother was a full time housewife. Father became the first Aid man at work and went on a comprehensive evening course. There was no more Girls鈥� Life Brigade for me as he could no longer meet me on winter evenings.
At first we had to eat our cornflakes with sultanas instead of sugar, hardly a sacrifice! For food on ration one had to register with a specific grocer. Our butcher sometimes found a bit of scrag end off ration and with a thick lentil base and homegrown vegetables we never starved unlike some in Europe. Fish was precious as lives were lost to get it. We queued once a week and were all allowed exactly the same and 6d worth of pieces for the cat (or a fish pie). This was my holiday job, one could queue all morning the time of arrival of the fish was unpredictable. Mrs Shepherd allowed no nonsense in the queue. I didn鈥檛 see a banana for five years.
Mother had always made clothes for herself and my brother and I and knitted pullovers for father. Did knitting wool require coupons? Were coupons required for cloth for home dressmaking? Our coupons were mostly used for towels and bed linen. The school uniform tunic bought to start my second year (fortunately an unpleated kind) had to last me the following six years. We didn鈥檛 need bras as we were flattened like 1920鈥檚 women. I knitted much khaki and my first jumper for myself at 13.
In 1942 mother was called up for war work. She worked for the General Post Office as she had in WW1 and for the public Library service. I then went to school dinners (extra to ration book rations) and was taught how to eat my prunes properly. The school raised 拢600 for an ambulance for the Red Cross. The refreshments for the fundraising were mostly fish paste sandwiches! The cook did her best and although some girls sauced it, I ate it up and burned it off playing games and grew apace. There seemed to be milk throughout.
I witnessed enemy action when I was 13. My friend and I were pushing our bikes up the hill from the swimming pool when we heard a most peculiar sound. (It was a boiling hot day not a cloud in the brilliant blue sky). We turned, the sky was full of planes, highish and flying steadily westwards. 鈥淟ook at the crosses - they are Germans.鈥� Up went the Spitfires dreadfully out numbered going almost vertical. Then came a huge explosion and column of smoke followed by the air raid warning. How had they crossed Herts and Essex without Luton being warned? They bombed Vauxhall Motors. Some men were killed. My uncle a WW1 veteran had dived under the bench in anticipation of the blast as he heard a bomb descending. I heard he was black from head to foot and his clothes beyond repair. We youngsters were ably shepherded into the swimming pool shelter by the Superintendent and spent hours there.
My aunt lived with us from 1940 to 1942 and worked full time making Army uniforms. Her husband remained at home in London. His job was essential, on the railway. One night he felt restless and went to a centre for such as he 鈥� a meal, cards, darts, people. On returning home his home had gone, flattened by a land mine. We felt he had had a premonition. He鈥檇 never been to the centre before. That touched our lives.
In 1944 Luton had a rocket attack causing death, destruction and injuries. From school, now 17 and doing a nursing course, I was sent the following day to help on the wards. So I saw the poor souls with their faces stitched but sitting up.
My mother鈥檚 plum expeditions are notable. She would cycle to outlying villages and make friends with the cottagers. She picked for them as they usually had become unable to and loaded her basket carrier. I loved bottling and we sent them to relatives.
On VE day I suppose I was in school. We had the next day for National celebrations. I remember taking sticky tape off the windows in the school hall 鈥� Staff and Sixth form. A school friend and I celebrated with her medical student boyfriend (Father disapproved of his corduroy trousers) and another boy who hardly spoke. We had tea with the lady next door to the medic鈥檚 family. She had saved some tinned fruit for the day. We joined in dancing in the streets and met some more communicative lads but one had to return home early sucking peppermints to disguise the fact he had had a glass of beer. His father was a strict Glaswegian. The Medic wisely predicted we would have trouble with the Russians.

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