大象传媒

The day the war began, my mother and I were staying in a B&B in Scarborough. I was 17, just left school, not yet begun work. My father was a civil servant and had to return to work. The house over the road was taken over by evacuees, and potential 'takers' came to inspect them. The little blond girls were taken first, leaving the boys. Our landlady was not happy about this and promised to take some of the boys herself.

The next day we went home on a crowded train, hot and stuffy, and my mother was very sick. We staggered from the station and arrived home. My father had crisscrossed the windows with sticky tape, and he had also covered every light fitting with yellow material, so we walked into a gloomy tunnel. My mother stood - white-faced and speechless. My father had left us a note: "Suggest you have a cup of tea and calm down". She spoke: "Get that stuff off".

Early on we had quite a lot of 'action'. We had no Anderson shelter. Later we were given a table-top shelter but it was not very comfortable, so we stayed in the cupboard under the stairs. I read a book while my mother would be saying "That's not one of ours!" I got a bit fed up with the cupboard. After all, I had to go to work the next day. My dog started coming upstairs when there was a raid on, making a fuss until I got up. I think someone must have sent him. Later on the bombers switched most of their attention to Sunderland.

During the war I worked for a man who was a magistrate. One day we had three visitors: a Jewish professional man, his wife and thier teenage daughter, only a few years younger than myself and desperate to work in this country. They sat very quietly, backs against the wall, while the father made his plea, on their faces the desperate fear of authority. The father pleaded his case, just the facts. When they had gone we looked at each other. My boss said "Don't ever wonder what this war is about".

I was a part-time firewoman. At one stage we were stationed at the Gray Museum & Art Gallery in West Hartlepool. taking part in a large exercise which covered the whole Civil Defence. I was on the phone when it cut out, along with all other phones. All was silent. This went on for a long time. There was no communication at all. Supposedly we had had a direct hit, and to make it more authentic, our officers were not told.

During the last days of the war my friend and I spent a week in Edinburgh. For whatever reason the town was full of people. personnel and holiday-making tourists. We wandered up to the castle. We were not allowed in because the castle was occupied by German prisoners of war, but we did go round the outside. There was a high fence, on the other side of which were the prisoners. We were embarrassed and tried not to look at them, concious of our summer clothes and our obvious freedom. Later on that night there was an air-raid siren - a false alarm - but we were used to coping and were in the lobby in no time. The hotel people were a bit surprised.

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