大象传媒

Because I had a baby brother, my mother used to ask me to go queue up at shops some 15 mins walk away, when we got to hear of consignments of tomatoes, and oranges being on sale.

We had apple trees in our garden, but Dad had dispensed with growing tomatoes in the greenhouse in order to have that as a chicken house. So I went to queue for hrs on end. I was told if the sirens went I had to run to the nearest public sandbagged concrete shelter. Dark, dank places on corners of thoroughfares, with wooden seats.

One time my dad and I ventured to another town half an hr walk away. We were just about to cross the main street, when there was an onimous sound of a plane. Next thing I knew I was over the other side of the road, still clutching my Dad's hand. A land mine had landed some streets away on the roof of a house, causing pedestians to be blown by the blast. When we got back home, my Mum showed us my brother's baby bath, which always hung outside on the fence. It had a shrapnel hole in it!. My brother still has that piece of shrapnel.

We had rationing. One Mars bar per week. I used to have it on a plate, and would use a knife to cut it in slices, to make it seem to last longer.

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