大象传媒

ETT'S WAR
I was born in 1926 at 52 Markby Road Winson Green, a suburb of Birmingham very close to the city centre. This area was comprised of rows of terraced houses and people didn鈥檛 tend to move away. My father, like many others, lied about his age, and joined the army in the First World War. He was gassed in the trenches and although he survived, chronic lung damage meant he could never work again. So when he had the opportunity to buy the little grocery shop next door (Number 50) from Mr. and Mrs. Freeman, he jumped at it.
When the war started in 1939 rationing meant that coupons and dockets were the new money. Bartering between neighbours and traders became the norm. Dad couldn鈥檛 smoke of course so his tobacco coupons were swapped for fruit for the family. We regularly swapped sugar for clothing coupons but some people sold them for the going rate of one shilling (5p). I remember that fish wasn鈥檛 rationed but it was only delivered perhaps twice a week. Word quickly got around and long queues formed whenever it was available.
Some people kept chickens, rabbits or even pigs but you had to declare them and the government took a share.
When I left school I went to work in the shop to help dad out. Unlike nowadays, on Sundays you could only sell essential items like bread and milk. We got fined twice for selling banned goods on a Sunday. Once for selling vinegar and once for selling a packet of 鈥楥raven A鈥� cigarettes!
As a teenager I was horrified that we couldn鈥檛 get nylon stockings. You could if you fraternised with the Yanks but that was frowned on by mom and dad.
We had to resort to the trick of staining the legs with gravy browning and the drawing a seam on the back of the legs with an eyebrow pencil. This was in preparation for a walk to the 鈥渕onkey run鈥� with a group of friends to meet similar groups of lads. The monkey run was the area of Soho Road, Lozells Road, Blackpatch Park and Handsworth Park. It was on one of these trips that I met Eric Townsend, the man I was to marry on 5th August 1946.
The blackout was strictly imposed by the ARP wardens. They would bang on your door and shout if any light at all was showing. We lived quite close to the Asylum and Winson Green Prison. Both had anti-aircraft guns in the grounds and it was very noisy when there was an air raid. One night I saw a German bomber caught in the beam of a searchlight and I could see the tracer bullets as the bomber鈥檚 guns tried to shoot out the light. Fortunately we didn鈥檛 seem to have many big bombs dropped nearby, mainly incendiaries. I suppose they were trying to hit the big factories in Birmingham. Lucas鈥� were just up the road and the Spitfire factory at Castle Bromwich and the Dunlop tyre factory weren鈥檛 too far away. As a family we never went upstairs to bed throughout the war. Dad couldn鈥檛 climb stairs anyway and we only had one Anderson shelter to share between two houses. The fence between the houses was an early casualty of the war! Auntie Cissie lived next door and by the time she was in the shelter with her five children there wasn鈥檛 room for anyone else!
I may not have had the education that our children have enjoyed but those times taught us the values of friends, family and living.

ERIC'S WAR
I was born in 1924 in Ford Street, Hockley in Birmingham. But by the time war broke out we had moved to Greenhill Road in Handworth. Not far away but a much grander place where we didn鈥檛 have to share a toilet with four other houses! I had started work at 14, not unusual in those days, and by the time I was old enough to be in the army I was a Pattern Maker at Avery in Foundry Road. Because Avery made components for the 25 pounder guns my job was a Reserved Occupation and I was fortunately exempt from the call up. I worked 7 days a week and did one night firewatching in premises in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. We were fully equipped for anything Hitler could throw at us. A bucket of sand, water and a stirrup pump!! I had to cycle there and back because the trams didn鈥檛 run at night and it was pretty hairy in the blackout what with all the slippery tramlines and cobbled roads.
One night a landmine landed on the corner of Greenhill Road and Rookery Road. It didn鈥檛 explode and the whole area was cordoned off.
I sneaked back home to feed my budgies but got caught by a policeman and got a right telling off.
During the war a lot of the professional footballers had joined the forces. League matches had been suspended and the teams only played friendlies. I was young and fit, not a bad footballer, and teams were short of players. I was playing for the Avery works team at the time and we were doing very well.
Mr. Robinson, our manager, wrote to Aston Villa recommending me. They must have been more desperate than most because they asked me to play. Me, a lifelong 鈥淏aggies鈥� (West Bromwich Albion) supporter, but I still have the programme for that game. We played Notts County with me on the left wing and lost!! But they did have more professionals than us.
Ethel (Ett) has already said about the Monkey Run where kids gathered to meet up, and that鈥檚 where we met and fell in love. We got married just after the war but rationing was still in operation. For the reception, which was to be at my parent鈥檚 house, dad borrowed a wooden barrel from a friend. For a couple of months beforehand everyone went to the off-licence and bought a jug of beer to tip into the barrel so there would be enough for the party. On the day it tasted awful but it seemed to go down alright. It couldn鈥檛 have been too bad because we鈥檝e been together now for 59 years. But I haven鈥檛 touched a drop since!!!

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