大象传媒

As a six year old in 1939 and living in Manchester my dad told me I had to do my bit so I agreed to evacuation to the village of Edensor on the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire, I had a wonderful few months with Mrs Maltby who use to do her own baking of bread, biscuits, and cakes, the lady had a son with motor cycle and I would walk down the road to meet him coming home from work, the further I walked the longer the ride I got on the pillion, As the sun rose in the morning I was up with the larks and out chasing rabbits or walking the banks of the river Trent down to Rowsley and back or maybe join the milkman on his rounds after collecting the milk churns from the farm we would deliver the milk at peoples houses using a ladle from churn to jug left on the door step.
For some unknown reason my stay was over and I had to say goodbye to my lovely lady, I was moved to a new home away from Edensor which I did not like at all this lady was horrible to a six year old, at teatime she would give me a plate of beans then serve rice pudding on the same plate whether or not I had finished the beans, well, yes I got homesick, my mother was sent for to come and take me home this made me very happy and when the day arrived I was on the station at Rowsley and filled with all the excitement of seeing my mother, alas the train went sailing through the station and I thought I had been abandoned and my mother was`nt coming.
My dad arrived the next day and I was on my way home, however, I almost did`nt make it, as the train pulled into the station I opened the train door on the wrong side and stepped out, my dad grabbed me by the collar of my coat and I was left dangling over the track below.
So, now I was home and still wanting to do my bit, so, I would watch our fighters having dog fights with the German Bombers over south Manchester and use the clothes prop in the back garden as my ack-ack gun to bring them down, great excitement for a youngster, but on the night of 23rd December 1940 the Germans Bombers came to get their own back on me and the people of Manchester, this was known as the blitz, my mother did not take us to the shelter for safety that night she thought it my be another quiet night instead she put me down stairs by the fire place (no fire) and I went to sleep, I awoke to an almighty bang a landmine bomb had hit and demolished two houses about 300yards away from us, our windows were blown in but nobody was hurt in our house and I was covered in soot, but I was`nt going to cry as I knew I was doing my bit

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