大象传媒

It was the evening after the announcement of the outbreak of war.I was at home with my mother and two brothers of whom I was the eldest being seven.I was aware of it being amomentous day and was aware to some extent what war was I had been avidly reading in the comics of the time such as the Rover and Hotspur About the gallant exploits of theFinn,s in their fight against the Russians. My Father must have been working on the night shift at British Celanese Leaving Mother to look after us.We went to bed at the usual time and the next thing I remember is being awakened by a stange noise which turned out to be the air raid siren.Next my mother appeared screaming get up get Ian and John downstairs,incidently you have to appreciate there were no lights in the childrens bed rooms .Eventually I got my brothers downstairs only to behold my mother running around and around the table screaming"where are the gas masks where are thegas masks?".This started my brothers crying so it is not hard to envisage what a state of chaos this family was in.Then to my amazement there suddenly appeared in OUR house the man from next door our neighbour from the family wehad nothing to do with our deadly enemy his appearance was enough to shock my mother out of her panic she was so shocked that she quietly did what he told her.In no time we were ushered out of our house into next door.This was a plce we had never been before the stangest things about this house to my seven year old eyeswas that it still had gas lighting and also the old cooking range .We allsat inthe living room the two families together the neighbour three or four children,children we normally had nothing to with.The father kept going out and coming back with the latest rumour There was quite a hubhub coming from the street and I distinctly remember the sound of breaking glass.It transpired that a neighbour had covered her cellar grating with apane of glass presumably to keep gas out.even as a seven year old that seemed to me to be a little stupid of course someone had walked upon it.Eventually the all clear sounded and we went home to bed.The next day we were told that it had been a false alarm apparently it was a widespread alarm.We still even after this event were never ever really on good terms with our neighbours although we children got on alright

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