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My first job during the war was working in a factory. I think Pearson Page and Dewsbury. I was working on a capston press making items for the war. I also had the job of dipping the ammunition boxes in green paint. It was noisy and not pleasant at all. When I had finished work I had two busses to catch and a long walk home. Sometimes we would have just sat down to a meal and the sirens would go off. So it was off to the shelter (this was an Anderson shelter) it was at the bottom of the garden. Myself mom dad and my sister the raid could last from half an hour to 3 hours sometimes having to have a meal by candle light. And make sure that no light shone through to the outside. On a rainy night it could start to fill with water. My father made two bunks and raised them from the floor which was better.

We lived at the Glebe and on the field across from our house there was an Air force station. There was a barrage balloon hovering above the station. One day it was swaying around, it had a lose cable on it, it looked very frightening.

As time went by I got fed up with all the travelling to and from the previous job. I then got a job at the Rivita biscuit factory in Alum Rock way I believe. They sent us home one night around nine thirty to get the bus safely home. We had been on the bus for only a short while when the sirens went off the clippie as they were called then hurriedly took our bus fares, then the bus stopped and we had to get to the nearest shelter. It was in the basement of a factory, oh! What a grim place that was. There were babes wrapped in shawls and young frightened children everyone was packed in there. Us three the driver clippie and me were given an orange box to sit on (orange boxes were what the oranges came in) we all made the best of it. People singing and drinking tea. The raid went on until five o’clock next morning. This shelter was only half a mile from the gas works in Saltley.

I was thinking about my mother who would have been worrying about me not being home that night. When I got home I went straight to the air raid shelter where my Dad, sister, and mother were, my mother was crying. But soon cheered up when she saw that I was okay.

The next morning we went to work and was told to go home, apparently the Rivita had suffered damage during the raid.

My father was an air raid warden and one night we were being settled in the shelter and the lady next door insisted on going back for her bucket, her hubby was calling to her to put the light out and come on hurry up. My father shouted from our shelter very sharply. (If you don’t put that light out I will come and take it out) this made her move fast. During the war the streets were very dark, the cars had to have tape over the lights with just a little slit for the light to peep through. And you had very thick curtains to your windows. It was terrible travelling around. There were some brighter sides to the war. The community spirit was very good.

My father heard from another air raid warden that the BSA at the Meadway had suffered a direct hit, with 240 dead.

As my jobs at The Rivita were no more. I had to look for another job.

I then started at the Colemore Depot. I started in the stores where I had to order bits and pieces for the vehicles. Then I was put on a job that involved getting the army bowsers ready to go back out. This involved getting inside the bowsers (tanker) and which had two baffle plates to stop the petrol from swaying around inside. When we were in there we had to paint some sort of striper on and then when it bubbled up we had to wipe it off(no masks then) When the inside was finished we two girls had to work on the outside to strip off old paint, then paint with primer and two coats of dark green paint. When this had dried we had to put the kaki on.

At the back was a strong light which shone through a stencil onto the item to be painted. This then allowed us to paint the shapes of the kaki onto the tanker.

Then it was ready to continue war work. We were allowed a pint of milk each a day to calm down the effects of the fumes on our lungs. I suffered painter’s colic.

When the war calmed down I went back to the RAF stores. Where I was supplying parts for cars etc. I remember the comer carrier….

We had ration books then brown for adults. Green for children the green books were for kids ratios, this allowed you to get. Bananas, sweets. We had clothing coupons. You had to queue for anything. (If there was a queue you jumped in there to see what was on offer)We had dried egg, dried milk and powder potatoes, pom I think it was called. It all tasted terrible. Three and a half old pennies for a loaf. Bottle of milk would have been two and a half new pence. Corned beef 3 old pennies for 20z.

I stayed at the Colemore depot until 1944 then I got married. We did have a nice wedding my husband lived in the country so things were easier to get. He would bring eggs and things to us in the town. 12 months later our first son was born 24 July 1945 there was still rationing free orange juice and dried milk for babies from the clinics. And daily mail shoes. Things slowly got back to normal. There was a long hot summer average winter and the neighbours were getting back together. Shop keepers more polite. And fish and chips cost 4d in old money just under 5p.

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