大象传媒

On Monday May 7th, fighting stopped. Tuesday was the official V.E.Day. I awoke and jumped out of bed:was it a dream, or was it true? I drew the curtains of my bedroom window and there before my eyes was the proof. The barrage balloon over Cardington which I saw every morning was still there but today it had a large V.E. painted in red on its side. Everywhere was bustling: my landlady was downstairs getting her children's breakfast and my landlord had the radio tuned to the Home Service for the latest bulletins from London.
My friend Elsie and I had been to a dance the night before with other electric welders with whom we worked and I had made a date to meet the fellow I had been dancing with for the celebrations on the following day. I met Elsie at the top of her road and we set off on our separate dates but there was so much going on everywhere that we wished we had kept the afternoon free! We passed Dudeney and Johnsons shop where we used to go dancing on some evenings and saw a notice in the window advertising a Victory Tea that afternoon. I think the price was one shilling and nine pence for a small sandwich,a scone and a fairy cake yellow with dried egg and of course, a cup of tea!!
I waited for my date where we had arranged to meet, but he didn't turn up. I watched people going by, arm in arm, happy and some were even drunk!!All nationalities were represented and everywhere looked very festive with streamers and anything pretty that people could find! Suddenly, I spotted Elsie. Her date had also not turned up (we found out that very few of the dates made the evening before had been kept: too much was happening!!) so we made our way back to Dudeney and Johnsons Victory tea. We were nearly too late and soon we were the only customers left. There was going to be a Victory dance there that evening and the management were busy trying to get everything tidied up and ready, but they were very kind, saying they hoped we would understand and that we were to take our time drinking our tea. We didn't mind at all, we thought it was fun!!
Then we decided to go back to our lodgings to get ready to go to a dance in the evening. We walked back into town along London Rd to the Bridge Hotel on the river. What a sight met our eyes!! Boats were sailing along the river decorated with streamers and balloons and sirens were hooting. There were big V.E. signs everywhere and the mood was one of merriment. At Dudeney and Johnsons (known as DU-John)dance we danced all night with all nationalities until it was time to go home. I said "Goodnight" to Elsie at the corner of her street, thinking what a wonderful exciting day it had been. I was tired, but this wonderful day was not yet over for when I reached the road before mine, all the neighbours were outside with their children dancing outside the corner shop which was all lit up. A gramophone was on the forecourt outside and someone was changing records for dancing. It was nice to think that I was with the family with whom I lodged and that we could all celebrate the end of the war in Europe together.
The next day Elsie and I would be back at our welding bays in the "Sterling Works Specialities" with Mr. Anderson, Muriel, Pat, Mrs Evans and Mrs Pitkin just off the road near St Johns railway station. The war in Asia was still on and many more were to lose their lives before there was finally peace in 1945.

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