大象传媒

My dad's father retired from East Suffolk Policeforce in 1936 but his name went onto the first reserve list. He returned to uniform, serving in the local police station during the war. This time he was just an ordinary constable working in the office and did not go out on the beat. When you are only six months old it makes you laugh when a policeman takes his helmet off to reveal his grey hair! He grew vegetables and tobacco for his pipe in the garden at the side of the house. He hung up the tobacco leaves to dry in the sun under the guttering on the side of the house by the chicken shed and run. The chicken shed had a door which opened to let the chickens out into the run which was constructed from a series of wooden cotton reel pulleys and rope. A bent metal meat skewer was used to hold it in the up position and this was operated from the outside of the chicken shed. Vegetables were boiled until soft then drained and mashed with a masher made out of a piece of old tree trunk. Meal was then mixed with the mash which when combined gave off a marvelous smell. The food was put into a homemade trough to feed to the chickens. The eggs laid by the three or four chickens supplimented their rations and were used in cakes and puddings. Before the the war Granddad drove his car but he was not allowed to take it out on the road during the war. After the war he had to wait until 1952 to replace it with a new one.

Granny joined what was called a "working party" set up by a "Lady" from the local area. This made various items from leftover knitting wool and material.

At the start of the war dad's sister had just finished training as a domestic science teacher. In her first post in August 1939 she had to go and make breakfast for the evacuees in Felixstowe. They then spent the morning in lessons while the local children had their lessons in the afternoon. She was later evacuated herself with the Felixstowe children on a train which went along the East Suffolk line calling at all the village stations to pick up more chldren and their teachers until Lowestoft. At the start of August 1940 she had to ask her headmaster to allow her to have the first two weeks off on holiday so that she could get home to be a bridesmaid at her brother's wedding in Colchester. Staff had to stagger their summer holidays so some teachers remained with their evacuated pupils.

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