大象传媒

Mr. Wodlin was just short of four and a half when the war first started. He remembers when his neighbour came from over the fence and first told them that the war had started. He lived in Doncaster, near to the 鈥淏road Highway鈥� hotel that was garrisoned by troops. Teachers were either elderly men or women. Railway caught fire in 1941, Germans bombed village by accident when they were trying for a target three miles away. When he went to the cinema he enjoyed American films and patriotic films about war. He was ten when the war finished. Rationing he remembers very well because he couldn鈥檛 buy sweets easily. Before the war he could obtain sweets very easily from the corner shop but during the war he couldn鈥檛. Fruit was a luxury and he never had seen a banana until he was eleven. Rationing ended in 1952 because of expensive imports. His family were never short of food as their mother managed to give big helpings at dinner all the time. They also used to trade with family friends. Mr. Wodlin also played football at school when he was a boy. Football stopped and then reopened near to the end of the war. He supported Doncaster Rovers. As a child they made there own games up with their imagination.
If you had extra rooms people were billeted with you. A soldier was billeted with their family called Robert. He worked for the colonel. Mr. Wodlin鈥檚 uncle served in the 1st world war, he hated patriotic songs and patriotic songs because he thought they were lies. His uncle strongly believes in god but he himself was no religion. On Sunday children went to church with their parents and to Sunday school. He didn鈥檛 because his mother said that he didn鈥檛 need to. His family were quite wealthy because his father earned about 拢3 a week, which in them days was a fair amount of cash. Once a lady came to his door and was selling a ten-book encyclopaedia, which costed 拢5,which was a lot of money. She thought he was going to pay some thing like 7 pence a week but he paid it upfront and she nearly fainted. When they went to school they all had to carry gas masks in a cardboard box around his neck. They once had a gas test at school in which they had to walk through a room with their gas masks on to make sure that they work. He was ill on this day and never got to use his gas mask, thank god. Headlights on cars were covered and there was only a little slit. At night you were basically driving in pitch black. Sand bags stopped shrapnel and blasts from hitting doors and windows. Restaurants had to have 2 days when they didn鈥檛 sell meat. Posters were put up to raise morale: CARELESS TALK COST LIVES, BE LIKE DAD KEEP MUM and IS YOUR JOURNEY NECESSARY. To go to school he had to cross the A1which was never busy. For entertainment they listened to the radio and George Formby used to teach them how to dance.

By Sean McBride and Scott Henderson of year 9 Sacred Heart school.

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