大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's war Site by Joan Smith for Three Counties Action on behalf of June Mulqueen, a visitor to the Bedfordshire County Show on Juky 9th 2005. It has been added to the site with her permission, and the author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born in 1939 and we lived in West London. I remember being taken into the large air raid shelter which was for the whole street and being worried about a dog, which was allowed in. My father was in the army in North Africa. He survived but had pneumonia and dysentery when he was there and that shortened his life. When my father volunteered he was posted to Norfolk and on one occasion when my mother was walking with me in a pram a German bomber skimmed low over us but didn't fire.

I can remember my mother and I sharing an egg. She used to make omelettes with dried egg. She made a rag rug which was green and she would say 'We'll have tea on the grass today.' I can remember the first bananas we saw and we didn't know what they were or what to do with them. My grandfather grew vegetables.

I can remember going to London for VE Day and there was a man in Trafalgar Square selling peaches for 5 shillings each (25pence - perhaps equivalent to 拢5 now). My father bought two but my brother didn't like his and my father was cross. My brother was three years old before he saw my father. He had been brought up by my mother and grandmother. He and my father never really got on.

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