大象传媒

The first thing I remember was the blitz in Manchester at Christmas. My brother worked at the fire station as a mechanic looking after the fire engines. One day he had to go out to repair an engine and when he returned, he found out the station had been blown up along with the fire engine.
After that, I remember planes skimming the roof tops. You could see the pilots that were in the aircraft.
Everyday the men on the avenue made the trenches by digging them in a field to act as an air raid shelter.. When the children went to bed they were dressed in suits and leggings ready to go to the shelter at short notice until the all-clear went.
In our house we had a refugee from Guernsey, she had come over with her school and lived with us for about 3 years. Because our family had grown we had no room. Her name was Joan and we have kept in touch until this day. Her children visit us quite frequently.
On the day my son was born, the first doodlebug came over Rochdale. We rushed to pick up the other two girls to bring them in with us. The doodlebug dropped in Oldham on an estate.
My mother-in-law had a friend who had a bakers shop and we got our rations from there so we sometimes had a good extra bit of butter and, we also knew someone with hens. Everyone helped each other.
My husband worked on aircraft production and sometimes had to work late into the night. I remember he would get the bus home and, halfway home, the siren would go, the bus would stop and he would have to walk the rest of the journey home. He seemed to work very long hours. He was good at his job and visited a lot of different factories and sometimes had the job of visiting American airfields and making patterns of new equipment. When he returned he had to make the part from scratch. He would work like made until it was fitted and worked.
My daughter, who was born in 1939, would go in the trenches with us and start whistling and keeping everyone amused in the trenches.

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