大象传媒

I was living in Shepherd鈥檚 Bush London. I was evacuated to Atherston, Warwickshire as a child in WW2. I was sent to a lady who was very strict and punished us for the slightest reason. If we didn鈥檛 eat breakfast we had no dinner, if you didn鈥檛 eat dinner you had no breakfast. At one point I was locked in a cupboard! We weren鈥檛 allowed to play outside, and after school we were always sent to our bedrooms, where we entertained ourselves with reading. When I stayed here I was told that I was being moved to another place. The following morning I was due to leave and I was so relieved that I wet the bed that night. I made the bed which we had to do anyway to cover up the fact that I had soiled it. I dread to think what punishment I would have received.

From there I went to Moore鈥檚 Farm where I stayed for seven months. It was great here. I was taught how to drive a tractor and I was shown how to eat hedgehog which they rolled in clay and baked. All the prickly spikes came off and underneath was beautiful white meat that tasted just like chicken.

At this time my mother worked in the canteen of Baddersley Colliery where she was the pastry cook. There was an American camp nearby and we always used to ask the Americans, 鈥渁ny gum chum?鈥� and they used to give us spearmint chewing gum. I returned to visit the Moores after the war and took my husband with me.

[This story was submitted to the People's War site by Wolverhampton Libraries on behalf of Margaret Jackson and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions]

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