大象传媒

This story is submitted by a volunteer on behalf of Radio Bristol Action Desk at City of Bristol College.

Lillian remembers being in the air raid shelter, her mother picking her up and taking her out of the shelter. Stood in the garden, Lillian's mother said 'That's Bath going up'. It was night and the whole sky was red and glowing.

The Andersen air raid shelter was covered in orange marigolds. Lillian and her friends used to go and play in the shelter after the war. It was like a den.

The chap next door had a radiogram for the street party after the war, which was quite something in those days. They put a 400w light bulb in a streetlight to light up the whole cul-de-sac.

Canvas was put on the windows to stop them shattering. The curtains in the kitchen were made out of flour sacks, which were bleached and had the utility marks on. Lillian still has a handkerchief with a utility mark on it. The utility mark was brought out in the war and meant it had a certain standard.

Lillian's family had a stirrup pump for putting out fires. The children would fill a bucket and hose the garden with it.

An incendiary bomb went through the back bedroom window, across the landing into the front bedroom and burnt the wash stand. It caused a terrible mess because they used earth to throw over it and put the fire out.

Going to school, we heard that a shelter had been bombed on Galway Road and everyone killed. There was no counselling, you took it all in your stride if someone didn't come in to school.

Colin's father was in the RAF stationed at Filton. He came home every night and did his stint of fire-watching. One evening, he was with a neighbour and they thought they'd check their families were all right. While they were doing this, a bomb fell where they would have been standing.

Alison Road in Brislington was concrete and therefore looked white like a landing strip. Every so often they sprayed it with tar so it didn't show up to the Germans.

Lillian's brother married in the war and Lillian used to go up on a bus to see him in Stroud, which took two hours. On the way, they saw a German plan with swastikas on it that had been brought down. We could hear the drone of the planes going over. Barrage balloons were tethered like a balloon to tangle the German planes in and put them off.

Lillian's brother was in the Territorials before the war. When the war started there was a knock on the door and someone official had come to get him because he was automatically enlisted. Lillian's mother said he was in bed and not coming!

We used to like listening to Paul Temple, Detective on the radio next door. The tune that started the programme was Coronation Scott. Every so often the accumulator on the radio went, so we rushed home because we had an electric radio. We had to be careful not to stamp on the floor because the radio would go off. The accumulator had to be taken to the shop to be charged up.

We used to have dried egg powder. There was nothing fresh, only what you grew in the garden. Orange juice came in a bottle.
There was Spam when the Americans came.

Lillian's sister was a teenager then and used to go to dances. There were always soldiers, airmen and Americans, which she brought home. Once there were two airmen, who were going to sleep in the graveyard. One of them was really ill, so we let them sleep by the fire. Another time when Americans were staying, they wanted to make iced tea, but we didn't used to have ice.

There was always a fire in the grate, and once it started spitting and a Scotsman in the forces said 'that's the stolen wood!'. We used to have loads of visiting forces people in the house.

Everybody helped each other and mucked in. Everybody shared everything. There were no muggings and you would leave your doors open.

If anyone got married in the war, they hired a church or village hall for the reception. Lillian's mother used to lay tables for them and everyone used to share their rations. There were things like fish paste sandwiches for the reception. The cake would be a small sponge, with cardboard shaped like a cake and covered in icing put over it to make it look like a wedding cake.

'BU's were Bread Units in the ration book for getting bread. We would queue up for bread on Saturday mornings. Sometimes if you had a good grocer you could change your bacon for cheese.

It was something to have butter. We used to show off if we had bread and butter for tea.

There were clothing coupons for children. They used to cut the dress off and put a band of something else in and put the bottom bit back on. This made the dress longer. It didn't matter so much, because we didn't tend to get fatter so much as taller then because we were eating quite healthier.

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