大象传媒

I was very fortunate. At the start of the war I was given a small bicycle for my 6th birthday, it was called a fairy cycle. I had that for about 18 months or 2 years I suppose. I grew out of it, and my father managed to hear-it was who you knew at that time, who had what where - he heard of someone who had a 14鈥� bike, and it was there, someone had evacuated and they were willing to sell it. It was no use to adults or Germans, so I had a fairly new bike for 2 years, it was a green Ellswick, and it lasted me quite well towards the end of the war. Again, I grew out of that. These were second hand bikes, you never had a new one, it was passed on, people did keep things going, things lasted. Then I was fortunate again, a cousin had evacuated had had an 18鈥� Humber, practically new. I was given that to go to school, as I was going to have to go to Town from L鈥橧slet. But I can remember being a bit worried the first few times I rode it, there was quite a 鈥榮tush鈥� in my class, 鈥淗ow did he get a new bike in the middle of this war?鈥� Bikes were supposed to have been handed in, so you had to keep 鈥榮chtum鈥�. Everyone rode round on bikes.
MALCOLM WOODLAND

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