大象传媒

I was born in Gorton, Manchester in 1938. My father was in the RAF and my mother was left to look after my older sister and me - as well as earn a living. She worked in the pay office of a local firm. Consequently she found little time for anything else - although I can remember her making some extra cash by winding a yard of "bias binding" on hundreds of white cards. She depended on our neighbours for her shopping and babyminding etc. They were wonderful people and the matriarch of the family was the - unqualified - street nurse. She was an absolute treasure.
My father didn't trust the public air-raid shelters, (although there was one built in the road right outside our house), and once when he was on leave, strengthened under the stairs with thick timbers. It was in here my sister and I spent many nights.
The man next door was in the merchant navy and one day he gave me something I'd never seen before. It was a banana. I was told how to peel it and what it would look like inside. I decided to show off and take it to school. Halfway there I couldn't resist and started to peel it. Lo and behold it was exactly as I'd been told. Cluthing the lower half in my hand I ran off again and after a few steps the top half fell off! I was heart-broken but had the presence of mind to stick it back on and carry it more carefully.
The teacher was delighted to be able to show her young class this "new" fruit. I remember that I had a large piece and the rest had a taste each.
Incidentally, I must have been a clumsy child because when we were asked to take a mug in to school to collect our chocolate powder - from Canada, I think, - on the way home I dropped the mug. I scooped most of it up though and my sister never knew what she was helping me to eat!

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