大象传媒

I remember the blackout when everywhere was so pitch black you could really see nothing at all in front of you. I rememeber a stranger(my Father) coming home and holding me close, I could feel the love from him and smell the Brasso polish on his buttons. An airoplane came down near us and I went with my friends to pick up pieces of it, my son still has these I think. We used to watch the American Forces drive their lorries by and we would shout "Got any gum chum" and they would throw out chocolate, biscuits and of course gum which we would collect and take home to our Mums. When the doodlebugs stopped making a noise my mum used to roll on top of me in bed, how she thought this would save me I do not know. We sometimes went down our neighbours air raid shelter, which smelt funny (now I know it was damp) My mum kept the tobbacco part of my Fathers hairdressing shop open during the war and the servicemen used to come in for their cigarettes. Everything was hard to come by and my aunts and grannies used to give their sweet coupons to me so that I should have some sweets.We used to have to queue for everything especially if it was something rare like a banana. I used to take all my mum's vegetable peelings to a "pig bin" in the road which everyone used in order I suppose to feed the pigs. We went to the beach once and I remember the barbwire fortifications there. Although I was very young I remember these things so vividly. Mum used to take me to the pictures every Wednesday after school. We had drills at school where we would have to practice going down the air-raid shelters.

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