大象传媒

As an adult now I find it very strange that I quite enjoyed the war and don鈥檛 really remember being frightened, although I should have been.
When the war started my family and I lived in Holyhead Road near the railway bridge. My parents, who were originally Londoners, returned from living in Canada in 1936.
At the outbreak of war, friends and relatives wrote and asked my parents to send my sister and me back to Canada for the duration, but my mother said 鈥渘o, we would sink or swim together鈥�. Being nine years old I couldn鈥檛 work out what it had to do with swimming.
I never minded sleeping in the cellar because of the air raids and being tired at school because of broken nights. It was a way of life.
On November 14, 1940, the ceiling fell in on the cellar and we had to get out. Luckily the stairs weren鈥檛 blocked and we stayed in a surface shelter across the road until morning. I entertained myself the next day collecting wing nuts, washers etc and putting them in piles. They had come from the Alvis spares department. My mother had found a steering wheel in her bed.
We then moved to Tile Hill to lodge with relatives and when the sirens went we used to go down the big shelters on the Fletchamstead Highway. I had a joke book and remember entertaining the old folk down the shelter.
On Christmas Eve I was looking forward to our nightly visit to the shelter as there were promises of treats and a visit from Father Christmas. Much to my disgust the sirens didn鈥檛 sound that night.
While lodging in Tile Hill the only school that could be found for me was All Souls Catholic at Hearsall Common. I found Catholic school interesting but couldn鈥檛 understand why my mother wouldn鈥檛 buy me rosary beads. I only wanted to be like the other children.
My happiest memory of the war was dancing the night away at the VE Street party in Lavender Avenue. By this time I was 14 years old. Through dancing all night on the Tarmac I wore holes in my new shoes, incurring my father鈥檚 wrath because the shoes had been bought with three of his clothing coupons.

1940 BLITZ ---After the marble fireplace had fallen into the cellar where we were sheltering we left by the stairs, which luckily weren鈥檛 blocked, and went to the Surface Shelter which was outside the Great Meeting House opposite to our house. My Dad went down to a knees full-bend position and had me on one knee and a firm grip on our dog鈥檚 collar with the other hand. When the all-clear siren sounded in the morning my Dad got up with difficulty and had to grab his trousers! He had busted the buttons off his trousers which were attached to his braces!

During that time in the Surface Shelter the Gasometer in Hill St blew up. Believe you me I have never heard such a bang before or since. The next morning we went for a walk. We just missed seeing the King and Queen but I was particularly disturbed by the acrid smell everywhere. I was told in later years that it was the smell of burning flesh.

My mother was wonderful during the war, feeding us well on rations. She concocted dinners out of nothing. Her best culinary triumph was obtaining a rabbit which was off-ration. She steamed it and then roasted it slowly with stuffing and it tasted better than chicken. My mother always gave me money and a string bag to put in my school satchel in case I saw a queue. The idea was to join the queue for no matter what, as it was bound to be for something in short supply.

We occasionally had day-time air raids. One day I was half-way to school when the siren went. I continued my journey to school as I was more frightened by my Mother than Jerry. If I went back home I knew I would be in trouble!

My Dad was a Head Air Raid Warden and part of his training was emergency midwifery and for this purpose he always had to have in his possession a pair of sharp scissors and two pieces of boiled string! Fortunately he was never called upon to use them, but years after the war whenever my Dad left the house we used to shout after him 鈥淕ot your two pieces of string?鈥�
Although I started off by saying that I enjoyed my wartime childhood I do remember feeling sad when the Canadian servicemen we had visiting us occasionally didn鈥檛 return. Coming from Canada our address was given to a lot of servicemen so they had somewhere to visit when on leave in this country. I did very well for chocolate and chewing gum. I was extremely sad when my favourite didn鈥檛 come back. His plane had crashed returning from a bombing mission.

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