大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Allan Price, of 大象传媒 Scotland, on behalf of Rhoda Glanville and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I remember one day I was in school and all was quiet. The pupils were all busy in the classroom, the sun streaming through the high windows, when there was an almighty bang. The windows shook. It was though the Germans had invaded. It had been a farmer鈥檚 bull that had wandered into the minefield somehow, and set off the whole field. Sometime later the villagers were saddened when tragically the game keeper of the estate got blown up after heavy rain had shifted a mine onto a pathway.

Another memory I have is off our fight against caterpillars. Since they were eating all the valuable greens, the village children were enlisted to catch as many butterflies as possible with a prize promised at the end of the summer to the child who caught the most.

Whenever I went to visit my friend Barbara in Wyke Regis my father would give me some food to take with me. He would catch a couple of rabbits when he could, and I would take them, along with a few eggs and vegetables. What we didn鈥檛 realise is that Barbara鈥檚 family had no idea how to skin an animal, so I was sitting up at 11pm doing it for them.

I also remember the American troops who were stationed near us. The 鈥淎merican 8th Army鈥� were building up in preparation for D-Day. The coloured Americans were based at Portisham (the next village). They flew about on bikes with 鈥渟hoo shoo baby鈥� or some such slogan emblazoned on the bikes which we thought was very funny. It was the first time us children had seen a black man in our lives. We stood dumbfounded and open mouthed until they passed by, then giggled with laughter as we ran home to tell our mothers.

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