大象传媒

When I was seven, my mother and brother and I tried to escape from the War by going to stay with our aunt and uncle in Exmouth, Devon. It was a happy, carefree time - until one night when Hitler decided to drop sticks of bombs on the Exeter area. My three-year-old brother slept by the window - suddenly - in the middle of the night - we were woken by a loud bang and breaking glass. A bomb had exploded in the quarry behind our garden - my brother's bed was covered in shattered glass. I was told to get out of bed and stood by the door in the dark, feeling a bit scared for a minute while my mum and aunt rescued my brother. We put on dressing gowns and slippers and were ushered into the hall and then through the front door, where (and I shall never forget it) a huge brown 'egg' lay in the middle of the road right outside our house! - an unexploded bomb! We gingerly tip-toed past it - we were to go and stay with neighbours round the corner, apparently. They kindly took us in, although they already had two families living there. Next morning it felt funny to go to school from a different address and I walked there on my own longing to tell my friends about what happened. I had no conception of how nearly our house was destroyed and us with it! Next day we went back to our street - the bomb was still there -
with a rope cordon round it! It was a good story to tell my dad when he came down from London for the weekend! Our parents and relations were so calm for us during the War that we never really felt alarmed, although they must have found it really stressful.

Another short anecdote! - When we lived in Middlesex, we had a Morrison Shelter in the dining room and we had to go to bed in it every night, being joined by older relatives later on. The shelter was like a heavy metal table and very cosy! One night we were all trying to sleep in the shelter during the time of the so-called 'Doodle-bugs' which made a sort of purring sound before they dropped. We had a rather spiky cat called 'Monty' (after General Montgomery) and he loved to creep in under the blankets. There were two aunts in the shelter that night - one loved the cat - the other didn't! Suddenly the cat lover said 'There's a doodle-bug' and they both agreed it sounded like one. Little did the other aunt ever realise that the purring was no doodle-bug but Monty curled up with the cat-loving aunt, dribbling on her nightie - and purring away - just like a doodle-bug!

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