大象传媒

I remember when I was nearly five years old. My Father had a confectionary and ice cream shop. we lived next door to the 'Railway Tavern' and when the sirens sounded, we would jump out of bed and into our 'siren suits', a one piece garment you were zipped into and ran down to the cellar of the public house next door and sat on the beer barrels. I was more terrified of the mice and rats down there. The all clear sounded and we ran back home and into bed. We had air raid practice at school and when told, we put on our gas masks and ran into the shelter. It was small, dark and we were squashed together like sardines.

Everything was on ration. My Dad took our books so he could get more bottles of sweets for the shop. I remember counting all the coupons Es, Ds etc and taking them to the M.O.F. so the more coupons you had the more sweets you could order. My Dad always had lots because people used to come in the shop and sell their ration books. People were very poor but I tend to think the money for them ended at the pub or the horseracing.

My mother had a friend who had a farm and she would come to the house with a case full of ham, butter, eggs, cheese etc and my mother would fill it up with our own clothes and shoes we'd grown out of. At one time there were no wafers to make an ice-cream sandwich so I cut reams of greaseproof paper into large squares and people would ask for a 3D blob.

At school, the Headmistress smoked, she called me into her room and asked me to bring her cigarettes and a quarter of buttered brazils (which were scarce) to the school for her, but never to tell a soul. Unfortunately for me the girls thought I was telling tales and gave me a hard time for a while. In the park near us were large water tanks sunk in to the ground and one litte girl climbed up and drowned. My cousin found a hand grenade, unfortunately it blew part of his fingers off.

The shop was open 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, 9.30 to 9.30, no breaks at all. It was always full of soldiers, Canadians and Royal Navy men. Canadians always giving away chewing gum (we sold Hot Vimto). My Uncle was in the war for many years and he told my Auntie that if she sent coffee to him he would exchange it for nylon stockings for her. She guarded them with her life. Although I was too young to wear them it was exciting to see them. I remember my Nana managed to get a banana. She showed us it and gave us all a taste. Also she showed us a small loaf of bread which was grey in colour and tasted awful.

My younger brother had whooping cough so we all went to Carlisle where they were tarring the roads, so he could breathe it in. My elder brother and myself were out one day and peeped through a fence. We saw the remains of a German aeroplane. We shouldn't have, but we crawled through and took some bits of the plane to take home and show off.

At school you were in trouble if your hair wasn't tied back and had hairgrips in it. I remember the only shampoo you could get was a sachet of 'Eve Shampoo Powder' for 4D. It was put in a large jug of warm water till it dissolved then you poured it over your hair to wash it. My Nana used to preserve eggs in a large white enamel bucket. She used something called Isinglass.

One Christmas my mother had somehow got a solid black dolls head and got somebody to make a body for it. The head was heavier than the body and just flopped down. I remember I didn't like it, I was too young to know that you couldn't buy a proper doll.

In the shop any good sweets were 'under the counter' and were only sold to our very best customers. The doctor used to come in and asked us to save a large box of chocolates for his wife for Christmas. My Dad came home on leave once through the night and brought home a very large wooden box of grapes which we'd never seen before.

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