大象传媒

鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from london_volunteers on behalf of Alan Armstrong-Wright and has been added to the site with his permission. Alan Armstrong-Wright fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions鈥�.

At the age of eleven, I waved goodbye to my mother at Paddington station and along with lots of other evacuees from my school, started a seven hour train journey to Goonhaven in Cornwall. Goonhaven was so small it didn鈥檛 warrant a proper station and this is where a couple of dozen of us were turfed out on to a very basic platform. From there we were ushered into the village hall and seated on benches all around the edge. Local people drifted in, viewed the kids and selected the individuals they were prepared to foster. My friend, Peter Taylor, and myself said we did not want to be separated 鈥� which put off quite a few prospective fosterers. Eventually a very young couple arrived and were faced with a diminished choice. They approached us and their first question was 鈥�
鈥淐an you milk a cow?鈥�
I said 鈥淣o鈥� 鈥� but Peter loudly added, 鈥淏ut we鈥檒l try.鈥�
Which was enough for them to choose us.
The wife was about eighteen, with a three month old baby. Her husband, Seth, was no more than twenty.
They had a small-holding with a couple of cows, flocks of chickens and ducks and half a dozen pigs. Their plot included a large orchard and vegetable garden.
Seth was a farm labourer working on a big farm several miles away, so it became fairly evident that they would benefit from a couple of willing helpers.
Over the next few months we had masses of freedom 鈥� we stuffed ourselves with berries from the orchard and made and devoured clotted cream from the cows we milked.
Nobody oversaw our personal hygiene.
When my anxious mother arrived, after we had been there for three months, she was horrified to discover that we hadn鈥檛 had a bath 鈥� there wasn鈥檛 one. True, we had been many times to the beach at Perranporth where, no doubt, the sea water provided a degree of antiseptic treatment. My mother didn鈥檛 know how to approach the subject with the very kind and friendly young couple, so decided, as she was leaving, to voice her concern with my school teacher.
When he came to visit, he took the matter up with the couple and they were pretty upset with my mother 鈥� who they described as 鈥渢wo faced鈥�. Nevertheless, they did arrange to borrow a galvanised bath tub from some distant neighbours who delivered it. Much to our embarrassment they and the couple watched while Peter and I had a bath in front of them.
When we had finished, they took the bath away and then brought it back a week later 鈥� but clearly this was too much bother and I can鈥檛 remember it ever coming again.

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