大象传媒

I was 4 years of age when war broke. I remember listening to Chamberlain on radio whilst sitting with my grandparents and mother informing the nation we were at war, even at that early age.
Once i recall a bombing in the east end of Wallsend, Tyne & Wear late at night. The intended target was the shipyards but they missed and hit nearby residential properties.
The next day I went along with my father, Jonah Higginbottom, to look at the damage. All I recall was this toilet in the air, half of the house had been bombed & demolished. I was puzzled how this toilet was above floor level. Our own toilet was in the back yard and it was the first one id seen above floor level. It intrigued me, they must have been posh people who lived there!
I went to Central School, Wallsend. I enjoyed school and stayed for school dinner which were two and six a week. It was my best meal of the day. My favourite treat at home was the fat juice that my mother collected from cooking meat. It was stored in a stone jar and I spread into onto slices of bread which were cut like door steps with salt & pepper sprinkled on top!
Our house had no bath, it hung on a hook in the back yard next to the air raid shelter. We bathed once a week on a Friday night. The water from my mothers washing was boiled in the gas boilder and then transferred by bucket into the tin bath in front of the fire. The whole family used that water, one after the other. You then got a spoon full of syrip of figs every Friday. I remember "vyril" being spoon fed to us as well but can never remember what this was for!
My father used to sole our shoes, once he sent me for leather to Watsons the leather shop, high street Wallsend. He used to steep this in water for hours which softended it and then bray it with the hammer to soften it further. It was then cut & shaped to fit our shoes and tacked on.
Our radio ran off what I think was called an "accumulator" which had to be taken to a shop regualrly to be refilled with acid to esnure we had radio news.

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