大象传媒

I was evacuated on Sunday, the first day of the war, with Boaler Street School (Newsham Junior). I was 10 years old. We went by train from Knotty Ash Station to Conway. I went with three other girls to an estate just outside Conway town, and was put into a three bedroom house. The occupants were a mother, a grandfather and three children, so you can imagine it was overcrowded.
The four of us slept in one bed 'top-tail'. I think we managed because we were small, the other occupants of the house were; a cat, a dog and a monkey.
My mother and aunt came to see me the following sunday, they were shocked when they saw the dinners keeping hot on a big range where the monkey who had a boil was scratching himself. My mother took me out with my clothes to the centre and a lady took me in for a week until my mother made arrangements to take me back to Liverpool the following sunday.
The education in Conway was that we crossed the bridge in Llandudno junction and the junior boys who were living in Llandudno junction travelled the other way to Conway. I stayed at home though the war, the blitz was terrifying. we had a big shelter in the street, we gathered here when the sirens sounded, the following day we would go into the park opposite to gather shrapnel and see who could have the biggest piece, the things we did to keep us amused.
As I was in the exam year of my education, the girls who were in the same position as myself, had what was known as Home Teaching, a number of parents lent a room in their homes for us to use as a classroom with a teacher who had not been evacuated. This used to happen 2 or 3 times a week for a few hours, we still had homework to do. I passed my exam in May 1940 and went to St Edmunds College, my friend there was Alma Roza (sister of Lita Roza the singer), I left there in May 1945 and worked at the Royal Insurance Company.
My father was a sheet metal worker with the Gas Company, and he would disconnect gas meters that had been damaged after a bombing. He was also kept busy during an Air Raid, he was called a senior Worker for the area around where he lived. While the Air Raid was on he would check people had gone into the shelter and were OK, we had a pump, water and sand in the garden.

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