大象传媒

Tom Woodcock

Memories of rabbits, shrapnel and sweets

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During the wartime my father worked for the Ministry of Defence. He used to build gun sites and air raid shelters . When he had to go to airfields or army barracks he used to set traps for rabbits (he used to keep ferrets). The rabbits were then taken back home, aunts were involved in skinning the rabbits and making mittens, cot blankets, it was like a cottage industry, the meat was then distributed amongst family members.

When I was about 8 years old, eight to ten of us in a small gang used to collect shrapnel and anything else we used to find. My biggest memory was a local sweetshop having its windows blown out and eight of us were in the shop before the ARP arrived and they pleaded with us to come out of the shop as it wasn鈥檛 safe, which fell on deaf ears!

My aunt Nell and cousin Joyce used to have American boyfriends and they were very generous to me with their sweet ration!

Officers and MOD personnel were surprised when my father set lines out for his rabbits runs and the MOD thought he was setting the guns up as if he knew which way the Germans were approaching. He was more concerned which way the rabbits were running!

(typed by Denise Pritchard)

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