大象传媒

We spent night after night in the shelter. The neighbours got their own shelter. We got bunks in there to make it more comfortable. It was not damp as some people say.

After the Blitz air raids gradually became a little less, but we always went to school with our gas masks slung over our shoulders along with our satchels. We walked. I walked in all 4 times a day, not wanting school dinners. At school when the siren sounded we filed out in an orderly manner into reinforced concrete corridors. There was no panic. It became a part of life. I was evacuated 4 times, first in 1939 to a relative's cottage. Next to a lovely country house in Woking. Then it was Letchworth in Hertfordshire. Every time I was with Mum because I was young and an only child. At letchworth there was a restaurant called "The People's House". Drab I thought! Everything was drab, especially the food because of rationing. I spied a sliver of lemon curd in a little cake. I love lemon curd. I was in a lemon curd heaven for a while!!!

I made Mum a ration book holder in school and it came unstuck. She refused to use it. Once I fainted in singing lesson because of losing my appetite. I was said to be suffering from malnutrition. Mum was horrified. She always tried to get nice food. Queueing for ages. Toys were also rationed. I waited nearly a year for an old rusty bike which my father painted to look beautiful. I played with a ball which was just plain grey, smooth and with only one mark, the word "Utility". This made it seem more round! I called it "Roundest".

Towards the end of the War we got the V1 pilotless planes, then the V2s. They were scary because no warning was possible. They were rockets. We lived in hope and prayed.

After the War when the Andersen shelter was taken apart, I missed it. my refuge in trouble and later my retreat to read and be quiet. it had rescued us after a landmine had demolished a nearby house , and our ceilings had come down. It had protected us since the Blitz when I had first been introduced to it. it had a corrugated iron sheet over its entrance. and roses grew round this. In spite of the blast wall in front of it it was pretty. I still miss it.

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