大象传媒

I was 15 when the war started and I lived at Muswell Hill in North London. I worked in a grocery and provision shop before the war and when they took the men into the Services, I continued on, although I didn鈥檛 start in the shop where I stayed for 14 years until I was 16. We used to pack up the 2 ounces of butter with the wooden pats, the lard, 4 ounces of margarine, and I think it was 4 ounces of bacon and also 4 ounces of sugar. We just got used to doing it. We used to cut the coupons out, and my manager and his wife used to count them up at the weekend so that they could get that amount of supplies again. It was just one of those things that you felt was the right thing to do. The only time I felt guilty about those rations was when you got the men coming in as it seemed such a small amount to give a man. It was quite a god laugh because everybody was trying to help each other and you鈥檇 get the factory workers coming in. There was other stuff you could buy, like tinned food. A lot of the families had allotments so that supplemented the vegetables. I don鈥檛 know how my mother managed to cook the meals she did, but I think in those people were very basic cooks, and I think we were all better for it. I liked my job, and was there until I met and married my husband in 1954, when I left. I went into his business when our daughter was older.

I was 21 on VE Day, on May 8th 1945. My manager and his wife collected some rations together from different people and they made me a 21st birthday cake. It was plain but it was lovely. They also managed to get a bottle of wine and we had a little party at work. I took home with me what was left over. My own parents were very good too. There weren鈥檛 very many things you could buy but they managed to get a very little leather wallet and put some money in it for me. But you didn鈥檛 expect anything big. I also got lots of cards which I still have. Although it was a dreadful war, I had lots of friends, and everyone was kind and helpful to each other. You knew your neighbours then, which was very different to today when you often hardly know the people who live next to you.

On VE Day there were parties going on in the street with people dancing and singing. The Yanks were there and men on leave. In the evening we went down to a pub, where I had so many drinks bought for me that they were just wasted because I鈥檓 not a drinker. I came up on my own to the celebrations in the centre of London 鈥� most of my friends were in the Services 鈥� and the fireworks and the atmosphere were wonderful. I didn鈥檛 stay all night like some of the people did as it would have been a long walk from Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square to Muswell Hill.

It was sad when so many of the boys you had grown up with never came back from the blind sorties and battles, but at the time of the celebrations you were only thinking, 鈥淣o more air raids so people won鈥檛 have any more of that suffering.鈥�

People were ever so good to each other. One time I was given nylons because the son of the lady I worked with went to America during the war. He brought them home for his sister but she was bigger than I was and as they didn鈥檛 fit her, they were given to m

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