大象传媒

We were evacuated for three years then a new baby came. Mummy took us back for a while then we went back again. Then the doodlebugs started. I was older and I wouldn鈥檛 leave home. But my younger sister and my elder sister went up to Nottingham. And I braved the doodlebugs with Mummy working in a day nursery. I must have been about 14. The doodlebugs were absolutely amazing. They would come over our home at Hayes and as soon as they stopped we knew we had to hide. But as they went by I stood and watched it going down. For me, young girl that I was, to me, seeing that doodlebug go where it was going and I just prayed for the people that it was going to. I can still think about it now.
I think about it now, what was it for. What is war for? Think about it now, what is it for? But having said that, there is quite a lot more I could tell you about my first boyfriend at 11. He was sweet. In those days we could ramble. They were cutting down a forest for the war effort. There were wood chippings and we used to take my dolly鈥檚 pram and pick up the wood to come back for the fires. Those are the things we don鈥檛 do now. Also, when we went to the Post Office to get the money from our father, she used to let us have the tall sweet jars with the long spoon to get all of the old sweets out. I suppose now as a mother, I know how she felt, to let the dear little girls do that. She would make these little bags for us to put them in. That was a lovely thing to do, wasn鈥檛 it? There was a lot of kindness, and the village school was lovely. Peggy and I were accepted, and I must say, we were very well looked after. I still kept friends with the family when I was married in later on years. They were very brave people who took on evacuees. Some of the children were perhaps not as well brought up as us, I must say. We shared a lot of time with the other children and they were very different from us.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.