大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Newcastle on behalf of Evelyn Patterson and has been added to the site with her permission. Evelyn Patterson fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Well I just remember when I was young and the air raids started, we had an Anderson shelter in the back garden and you all had to go down in the shelter with a candle. All your windows were all blacked out you weren't allowed to show a glimpse of light. You know it was very hard in the shelter, it was damp soil and all that, it was horrible. My dad was away at the time down in London, do you remember the great fire of London? Well my dad was there. So there was my mum and seven kids all on their own during the air raids and that. We used to hide in the cupboard under the stairs when the air raids went off, we were petrified, it was horrible.

And I remember the ration books when you had to go to certain shops. We were frightened to go out in the street with bombs dropping and all that. It was very hard, plus there wasn't much money. We didn't have a lot of schooling then either. I was aged between ten to thirteen. My Grandma was still alive and she was living on her own, we lived near Tynemouth Castle, and we had no cellar. I went to live with my Grandma and we used to go down in the cellar when the air raids went off, it was terrible.

I remember when my dad came home from London. He had had his arm blown off. In London he was part of the ARP or the Army, and of course having lost an arm he couldn't work any more. Of course, with the war and that, you had to get on, you just had to get on with things and make do, it was a hard life. I used to love to get the shopping, I'd get the ration books and from them you had to cut the squares, the coupons, out. I think you got about an ounce or two of tea, you got three or four ounces of butter; bacon and things like that you never saw, eggs you never got. Bread was mainly brown. Meat, you got things for the family so you would make a big pan of broth for them all.

You never got any treats, there were no pictures where you could go, well you couldn't afford it. When we were young we had things like jig-saw puzzles to entertain us or drawing, crayons and things like that. not like teenagers today, it was hard. We used to have big rolls of wallpaper and mum would cut a big sheet out and we would do candle tracing. That's where you drew with a candle on the paper and you had a big tray filled with water. You put your paint over the sheet with the candle tracing on it then put it in the water, then you got the drawing come up. You did all sorts of things. You played snap and you argued if you win or if you cheated.

There were the candles and the like. We lived in a big house with no electricity, we had gas mantles for light. When your money in the meter was finished you'd use a candle, but you would save your candle for when you going out in the dark and you were terrified.

My parents were very strict and my dad would say "I want you in by eight o'clock, then the door is locked. You don't have to go to bed at eight but that's the time you are in and I lock the door." and we had to do that. We didn't dare say no. And you were all in for your meals together. When I think back now, and I see some of the kids now I think "My god if I did that when I was that age I would have got a clip round the ear." When we were at home, because there were some younger ones in the family, you would have to go for your messages, you didn't dare say no. Dad would say "I want to talk to you." and he would write down what he wanted and it was straight there and straight back and not talk to nobody. We had to do that, it was the way we were brought up, and I brought mine up the old fashioned way and it didn't do them any harm.

After the war the family all moved away, going there separate ways down south and that. I have no nice memories about the war, it was horrible.

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