大象传媒

In the late 1930鈥檚 there was some fear that Germany and England would go to war, so English Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, went to Germany for a conference with Adolph Hitler. As a good will gesture he presented the Furrer with an umbrella. Henceforth the Prime Minister would be dubbed as the 鈥淯mbrella Man.鈥� Upon his return from the conference, he assured the British people that 鈥淭here Would be Peace in Our Time.鈥�

Peace was short lived. War was declared in 1939. Days prior to the Declaration, parents were advised to send their children to unknown, safer areas of the country. We arrived at school, my brother eight, sister six, and being the oldest, at ten, was in charge of the younger two. We were only allowed to bring the barest of necessities in a pillow case, probably most, if not all, of our wardrobes My parents told us we were not to split up. Buses arrived, which took us to trains for the journey. This was our first train ride, which was detoured as a preventative measure in case the Jerries had spies, and we might be bombed. In the late afternoon we arrived at a parish hall in Shropshire, adjacent to North Wales. The villagers were all assembled to pick the children that they would billet.

Several people wanted me 鈥榖ecause I was tall for my age, but I insisted we had to stay together. There was a stroke of good fortune. A young married couple, whose surname was Klay, came to live at a parent鈥檚 home. The home was divided with separate entrances, but the upstairs was never partitioned. The elderly lady鈥檚 home consisted of a manor house and dairy farm. The young couple billeted me, while the elderly lady took the younger two. I as given a beautiful bedroom sort of pre-Laura Ashley style, which overlooked a rose garden.. The first morning I awoke and was worried about the younger two, when the door opened, and they pounced on my bed. We were all together, but they essentially lived with the mother, while I was with the son and his wife. *

The manor house was akin to the beautiful European homes we see in period movies. There was a large walk-in larder stocked like a super market. We literally ate off the fat of the land. The grounds were meticulously manicured. The large farm was bounded by orchards. We picked rose petals to make 鈥渟cent鈥�, romped in the haylofts, enjoyed watching the milking process, and ate fruit from the trees. One of the great treats was to ride in the then鈥� called shooting brake to market days in little towns. We had never been in a motorized vehicle before, albeit it had to be cranked from the front grill. This was a heavenly place for city children, who marveled at the wonders of it all. The Klays were kind and caring people. Unfortunately, some evacuee children did not fare too well.

I was able to write home, and advise my parents of our whereabouts. Shortly thereafter my mother and the three younger siblings were evacuated to Wales. The journey by buses and trains was very tiring for all of them. Finally they arrived at their destination. The gentleman of the house asked if mother would like a cup of tea, and she responded that she would love a cup of tea. Thereupon the man said 鈥淚 presume you have brought your own tea.鈥� Mother had her own quarters in the house, but when my father visited, he brought the entire family back to the unsafe city. We were saddened to leave the manor, but my parents missed us. We missed them too.

War was now beginning in earnest We lived in and out of air raid shelters, which were long brick buildings with

shelter. The babies were in a sort of cylinder contraptions with their legs dangling. Air had to be pumped into them. People did have the stiff upper lip, as they would sing, and tell jokes about Hitler. I remember one incidence when a man with a drawing of four pigs folded the paper and from the pigs arses emerged a drawing of Hitler鈥檚 face. These things seemed to quell anxieties. The city skies were festooned with barrage balloons, similar to hot air balloons. The purpose of these devices was to snare enemy planes; can we now think of anything more ludicrous. Liverpool was at that time one of the world鈥檚 major seaports with docks extending for over seven miles. It handled twenty-four million tons of cargo from 25,00 vessels each year, and as such was a potential prime target for the Jerrries.

About this time my mother became seriously ill, and had surgery to save her life. In addition, to this she had a degenerated heart. Coincidently her foster mother鈥檚 daughter, Minnie, who lived in the little village in Ireland where my mother grew up. invited us to the village called Shinn outside of Newry, County Down. Minnie had long since married, and was now the mother of four late teenagers. Seven of us, six children aged three months to ten years and my motherboarded a boat for Ireland with most of our belongings in a steamer trunk. It normally was an eight hour journey, but
because of a purported floating mine, it took several hours more. My two year old sibling took off like fork lightening, and fell down steel staffs, and cried all night and days afterwards. Eventually we arrived in Belfast, where we boarded a train for Newry. In the same compartment a man engaged my mother in conversation before arriving at his destination.

He bad us adieu, and left. Several stations and stops later he jumped into the compartment, and handed my mother a package, and left at the same speed as he came in. The parcel contained ham sandwiches, some plain and some with mustard, and chocolates. There was a savage war going on; food was strictly controlled and rationed, and no one had ham or chocolates to give away. This gesture has stayed with me all my life and has taught me a great lesson.

With full bellies, we arrived in Newry, but now had a bus trip to our final destination, Shinn. We arrived by bus at Minnies' tiny house, where her husband was lying on a couch in the living room. He was terminally ill with stomach cancer, and was barely able to move. Water had to be carried from a well; there was no electricity, but there was an outhouse. For sleeping quarters we were relegated to one half of the loft, which was accessed by a ladder Her teenagers had the other half. The occupants of this miniscule house now totaled thirteen. As soon as it was feasible, probably days later, Brenda, the toddler who fell down the stairs, saw a doctor. She had a broken arm.

Up the road from Minnie's house there was vacant property, the owners having gone to Canada. The house had four or five rooms and an attached barn still full of hay. We moved there. Water had to be carrier from a well and lhere was no electricity, but it,too,had an outhouse. we were I semi darkness, it appeared that a slice of bread from the table was walking across the floor. My mother, being the seventh child of the seventh, always presumed to have great intuition, and considered this a precursor to a famine. At night there were strange noises in the house, which seemed to be coming from behind a fireplace in a bedroom, so we all moved into one room. Clothes that were hanging upstairs suddenly had holes in them. My mother only owned one prize hat, and that too became a victim, as did bed clothes. Apparently there were rats living in the barn, and the smell of the food enticed them into the house

By this time we had become fully fledged evacuees, and were under some branch of government. One particular day my mother left me in charge, and headed for the Evacuation Office in Newry accompanied by a "religious blanket". Shortly after she left a woman on a bicycle stopped at the house on her way to do an errand. She informed me that she had gone to school with my mother, and would love to meet her again. I told her mother had gone to Newry. The woman said she would stop on her return. After the blanket evidence, we were moved immediately lock, stock and mink, and never saw the woman again.

This was the beginning of six years in Ireland being housed from pillar to post and school to school. We had occasional visits by my father, who was inducted into the Fire Service in England. Our final destination was in Moume, where we led a carefree and busy life. We were poorer than church mice, but enjoyed the bucolic life of gathering potatoes for the farmers; picking an abundance Of blackberries for sale, and were not above watering them a little to increase the weight.

The local children taught us that one! We pulled flax for farmers, and actually became knowledgeable about the whole process. We scouted the beaches for shell fish, which we sold for market. 大象传媒 ethic was established but we gave up the watering process. We made life-long friends in that lovely Kingdom of Mourne, namely in Ballymartin and Kilkeel, and visit there frequently.

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