大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Elizabeth Margaret Batty and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."
I was one month old when war broke out. At five when I started school I can remember mother making meals out of nothing. We had a large garden so we could grow our own vegetables and had ducks and rabbits. There were five of us in the family; I had a brother and a sister.

I can remember having cod liver oil at school, yuck!

We lived in a crescent and if the Americans went by they would throw bubble gum out of the lorries.

Mum used to save her sugar ration and take it to Wakefield to swap it for boiled sweets and sugar Christmas decorations at Christmas.

We lived at Ackworth and my father worked at Hemsworth Colliery and was in the Home Guard. He had a gun in the lobby in the bedroom 鈥� it was a forbidden place to us!

We had a pantry under the stairs and we had to sit in the pantry when we heard the sirens. We could hear the bombs dropping and my sister used to say to us 鈥滻f Hitler comes we鈥檒l get him won鈥檛 we mam鈥�.

When the war ended the Methodist Hall had a victory tea. Everybody baked for it and somebody played the piano.

Mother never gave us our own coupons, we used to complain but mum said she could do more with them all.

If friends came round everyone would share what they had even if it was one apple it would be shared by all of us.

Christmas times dad would paint tomato boxes and put wheels on for trolleys and make wooden bricks for the children in the street. Mum queued in Hemsworth for dolls heads and my auntie made red riding hood outfits. Christmas always sticks in my memory.

Biscuits and chocolates came in wooden boxes and they used to be varnished to make a sewing box. They made a lot of toys. A desk and stool were made out of a wooden top and copper pipes for legs, when I got that I thought it was brilliant.

My brother was six years older than me. A neighbour told him there was no Father Christmas, but my brother said, 鈥渢here is because my mum and dad couldn鈥檛 afford what we get for Christmas鈥�.

Mum made glac茅 fruits at Christmas. At Christmas she cooked dinner for seven on a Yorkshire range.

Father was also a 鈥榮haft-man鈥�, so at Christmas when the pit was closed he had to walk to work to examine the shaft, so I鈥檝e not many memories of dad at home over Christmas.

I can remember my mum and dad listening to radio every evening.

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