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Wartime memories of Luton and Maulden Part Two

Part Two of an oral history interview with Mrs. Barbara Lynn (n茅e Price) conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淢y Dad was a Captain in the Home Guard which was an awful come down for Dad really. But being that he鈥檇 been invalided out of the First World War he couldn鈥檛 do anything else you see, he couldn鈥檛 go into the Services again, he was too old I think anyway. He was a Captain in the Home Guard and of course the men that he used to drill were mostly men that had worked on the land all day every day, that鈥檚 why they were there and not in the Services because they were doing Reserved things and older probably. He used to have them on Parade outside the White Hart at Maulden, we lived near the White Hart so Mum and I used to watch him out of the window. It was so funny because you鈥檇 get these who were bent over from working on the land and you鈥檇 get them all in uniform but there would be just one who instead of having his forage cap one inch above the right eye would have it an inch above the left eye! My Dad would start them marching and their wives and children would all be behind following. Laughter! My Dad would come home hoarse because 鈥榊ou might have broken your Mother鈥檚 heart, you won鈥檛 break mine, you have no Mother and Father now, you are in the (ARMY!) Home Guard! Laughter! All these women sort of behind. There was a Major and his wife used to come along and tell him what he should be doing! Laughter! Oh, dear my Dad used to come home! We used to have some real laughs about it.

Also at that time we were living near the White Hart at Maulden, a long low pub. My sister was living us with them because her husband was in Kempston and for some reason the family used to evacuate, even in the middle of the night, they鈥檇 evacuate to the pub! A thatched roof, mind you! Laughter! I got fed up with this and one so night the sirens went and I said, 鈥業鈥檓 not coming, I鈥檓 not getting out of my bed.鈥� So of course none of them could go because they couldn鈥檛 leave me alone in the house could they?

I remember another night, my sister was sleeping with me, and the Germans started dropping bombs across the back of Maulden Church, there was a lot of ammunition in the woods there. The rail track is probably still there, it was full but I think there was some decoy lights or something and they were dropping a string across the back of the Church and my sister said, 鈥楤ombs!鈥� I said, 鈥極h, lie and count them.鈥� So I鈥檓 going one, two, three like this and I fell asleep. The next morning, my sister who is married, is missing! She鈥檚 not in bed with me. When I went to look she was in between Mum and Dad, she was so scared. Laughter! She was 24 or something like that. We did used to have some laughs.

The other thing was gas masks, we had to carry them everywhere. Well they were in those horrible brown cardboard boxes so somebody with great initiative started making pretty cases for them, make it an accessory. We鈥檇 got leather cases and my Mother went to Bedford one day and took her gas mask. Dad said to her before she went, 鈥楧on鈥檛 forget your gas mask鈥� so off she went with her gas mask. In the mean time Dad had gone to the coat cupboard or something or other so when she came back he said, 鈥楧id you take your gas mask?鈥� She said, 鈥榊es.鈥� He said, 鈥楴o, you didn鈥檛.鈥� She said, 鈥榃hat do you mean?鈥� He said, 鈥楪o and have a look in the cupboard.鈥� And she鈥檇 taken a box of beads with her. She had used the gas mask box to put a load of beads in and she鈥檇 been to Bedford with a box of beads. Laughter!

Then people got slack about using gas masks and so they thought they鈥檇 catch people out. I was in Luton going to catch the bus to come home and I hadn鈥檛 taken my gas mask with me - had I? Because we got blas茅 about this sort of thing. All of a sudden this van came up by the side of me and that鈥檚 what they were looking for. They gave a quick blast of tear gas, oh, God I took my gas masks with me after that. When I got on the bus my eyes were streaming, I was coughing. They鈥檇 seen me without a gas mask - a quick warning. I didn鈥檛 go without it anymore.

I didn鈥檛 have to do Fire Watching but it was going on all the time of course. Always I used to get up with Dad when he was called out, you know the Home Guard, see that he had a flask with him when he was going out. I remember my sister and I, Mother was ill in bed so we thought we鈥檇 cheer her up. So each of us had something of Dad鈥檚 uniform on and went and stood at the bottom of her bed and said, 鈥楴ow you must not cry Mother, but we鈥檝e got to go, everybody has to go.鈥� She said, 鈥極h, it only hurts me when I laugh, stop it!鈥� Laughter!

And then of course you had the shows in the village, like Wings for Victory and all these sorts of shows on the Recreation Ground you had stalls. My Dad always ran a sort of tombola stall. I remember one year we decided, I think it was the Youth Club, I鈥檓 not sure, we decided we would do buttonholes and sell them. On the morning of the show we went round to everybody collecting flowers from their gardens, asking them, and then we went to the local florists it was then, Burgoynes at Clophill and they showed us how to put them altogether. We were selling buttonholes all afternoon. I can鈥檛 remember anything else I did in particular for it because I was working as well.

We got used to the blackout, you have to remember in the villages we鈥檇 not had street lighting anyway, we used to walk. You had eyes like cats in the dark then. We used to walk about the village quite safely. One of my best friends at Maulden, she met her husband during the war, they were all stationed in Ampthill Park, the Royal Engineers. A lot of the girls from round here married fellas from there. We鈥檇 been to pictures one night and we were walking, you can鈥檛 imagine the difference from then to what it is now, we were walking home, pitch black between Maulden and Ampthill and we heard these footsteps behind us. So to keep our spirits up we started to sing and of course being young and silly, absolutely stupid these voices suddenly said, 鈥極ooh, nice voices,鈥� sort of thing, typical chat up line. So we stopped and turned round and they said they were two of the RE鈥檚 from the Park and they said could they walk us home. Well, we鈥檇 got a rule that we always looked at their pass books because it had 鈥楳鈥� or 鈥楽鈥� in, whether they were married or single you see. We said, 鈥榃e want to see your pass books鈥� and they must have thought we were mad so we got cigarette lighters to see whether they鈥檇 got married or single in it. They were single so we allowed them to walk home with us. They said could they met us the next day so we said, 鈥榃ell, yes, but over the fields between Ampthill and Maulden.鈥� Of course when we got there the next day one of them, my friend was as tall as me, one of them was quite short and the other one was tall so she makes for the tall one doesn鈥檛 she and I got stuck with the titchy one. She married him and they鈥檝e been married, they are still there in Maulden today. The other went by the board somewhere along the line but you wouldn鈥檛 have dared to do that today. Every parent鈥檚 worst nightmare but we didn鈥檛 hear of all the things.

I wasn鈥檛 allowed to go to dances until I was 19. My Dad thought dance halls were dens of vice! Then I was only allowed to with my married cousin and her husband. I hasten to add that I had been courting, as we called it in those days, from when I was 16 until I was 18, to a Hungarian fellow who鈥檇 been caught over here when Germany invaded Hungary. I鈥榤 still in touch with him now. That was a very dodgy time because as I say Germany invading Hungary he became an enemy alien, had to report to the police all the time and my Dad was very, in fact I was going out with him for six months before my Dad knew anything about it. But this cousin who eventually took me to dances they used to cover for me if I was meeting him.

They took me to my first dance. My very first dance I did actually go with my sister and brother-in-law to Kempston Barracks, there was a Sergeants and Officers dance on there and I was allowed to be taken to that. I was about 16 and that was a long dress 鈥榙o鈥�. But then when we started to go into the villages halls and all that sort of thing, I mean the Land Girls used to come in their Land Army uniform, anything. I remember one particular dance which was very interesting. It was an American band came from Thurleigh - I think it was in the old Church hall at Maulden, all knots in the floorboards and everything and it was a dance and a half. They included everybody. The band was out of this world. It didn鈥檛 matter if you were as ugly as punch or what, they just included everybody in their fun, but we only ever had one of those.

I remember the Youth Club we had an American Captain, Captain Blumenthal, came to talk to us at the Youth Club. He was telling us that they had this book when they came over here and in that they were told they mustn鈥檛 do this and they mustn鈥檛 say that and they mustn鈥檛 laugh at this. I can remember him to this day standing there and he said, 鈥榃e were told that we mustn鈥檛 laugh at your trains.鈥� He said, 鈥楤ut gee, when I first saw one I just wanted to pick it up and cuddle it.鈥� Laughter! Because they are so small in comparison to theirs, you know.

Do you know I honestly think that at 18 I never really thought of it like that, of doing my bit! You were too busy living your life. That was what you had to do. I never felt I was being cheated out of anything or that it had interfered with my life, I was enjoying it. There were young people there that I was with all day as well as older people. You know youngsters that weren鈥檛 well enough to go in the Services or were too young to go in the Services. I never really felt terribly proud, I wasn鈥檛 doing I suppose as much as I could have done and I didn鈥檛 feel that I was being cheated out of my life that I wanted to get on with. Because at the end of the day I don鈥檛 think I ever really wanted to just go and sit in an office anyway.鈥�

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