大象传媒

School Children in Wartime

I was nine years old at the outbreak of war in the year 1941. My first memory was when they were distributing the gas masks. Everyone had to have an air raid shelter in the garden. My sister, brother and I had to sleep there, as my father could not get us downstairs quickly when the sirens went. Often the beds were standing in water, which had seeped through the floor. I remember the bombs screaming down, it was terrifying.

After the raids we usually had no drinking water so the water wagons came round and we had to fill up anything we had available. All the windows were blown out with the blast so we had to have canvas sheeting instead. Our schools were bombed and we had to share schools. We also had to use the school鈥檚 concrete air raid shelter, where we sat on benches. Damp, smelly, nasty places: I did not like them. I did not like school and I disliked all the teachers. They never explained anything to you, we were never told anything about the war. You were never allowed to ask questions. We just did as we were told. We would not have dared to answer back or we would have had the cane.

At one time a Jewish boy was in our class. His name was Arnold. He wore a smart grey suit, short trousers, as lads didn鈥檛 go into long trousers until they went to work at 14. I used to think 鈥淲hy is he reading his silent reader while we are having our bible lesson?鈥� No one explained his circumstances to us, so we avoided him, poor lad. I鈥檝e always wondered what happened to him.

Let me add that there was no swearing or bad language in the home, at school, on the radio or in the street. There was never any moaning, the word bored was unheard of. Lads and men always took their hats off when entering the house. In my opinion good manners and respect are the biggest assets you can have.

We kids all played together in the street, mostly on the road. There were no cars around then. We played skipping, marbles, whip and top, hop scotch, leapfrog and invented games if we were at a loose end. We all played together. In the cold frosty winters the lads made long slides and we used to pretend we were skaters. They also found pieces of wood, which we used as toboggans. In the summer we played on the swings and see saw or jumped over the brook, falling in usually.

In the school holidays they put concerts on in the park. Larry Grayson started his career there in his teens. We used to love them. Also all families used to go paddling in the Pingles pool. That was a lovely day out as every one was there. We were all mad on the films. There were 6 cinemas in our town. Not one now. Two shows a night, seven days a week, plus matinees and we always had to queue to get in. It was a release from our austere lives. The films were wonderful. They took us to another world.

The most important thing in our lives was the radio. We had it on all the time; it was our only contact with events because we had no such things as telephones or television. The whole family sat in the evenings listening to the great programmes that came on. There was wonderful comedy and entertainment shows, and dispatches on the new that every one waited for.

Everything was rationed because most things were in such short supply. We all had ration books, so everything that was available was shared out equally. We didn鈥檛 see a banana for years, but I remember a consignment of oranges arriving from abroad and everyone was allowed one each. We had the fruit that was grown at home such as apples and plums. We were encouraged to grow whatever we could. Most of the front and back gardens were full of vegetables, particularly potatoes. Whatever was grown in this country wasn鈥檛 rationed. The posters all said, 鈥渄ig for victory鈥� and we did. I always helped my dad and that鈥檚 where I developed my love of gardening. Even the lads at school had an allotment patch. I remember Mr Timson and Mr Brogden with their horses and carts selling their fruit and veg.

When the chip shops had their ration of frying fat delivered we would queue for ages to get some chips. They weren鈥檛 on ration books but we were allowed a bag each, they were quite a treat.

The rag and bone man used to give us live chicks in return for a few rags. My mother used to rear them in a cupboard by the fire. When they got bigger my dad built them a pen in the back yard, and once they were fattened up used to have them for our Christmas dinner. I used to help my mother to pluck them on Christmas Eve.

We also had clothing coupons, which entitled us to a few new clothes, but my older sisters had them, and as I was the youngest I had all the hand me downs. But I didn鈥檛 do too badly as my mother could sew very well. Despite the rationing the mothers were wonderful in keeping the families fed and looked after. I don鈥檛 know how they did it.

There was no such thing as toilet paper, so squares of newspaper were threaded with string and hung in the outside toilets. Many of us had impetigo and scabies, which caused awful sores all over our bodies that we were very embarrassed about.

All iron railings were taken away to make tanks and aeroplanes. Even us kids helped the war effort by collecting scrap paper and any metal we could find. Coal was rationed too, and quite often we had to wear our coats inside the house or go to bed early to keep warm because there wasn鈥檛 enough coal for the fires.

At 12 o鈥檆lock one Friday night in August 1945 it came through on the radio that the war was over. Everyone was out of bed and we were all marching, singing and dancing round the streets. For three days no one went to school or work. There were bands on the council house steps and in the park. Thousands of people we walking around gloriously happy. The weather was great, too. We had street parties with tables in the road, bunting flags up, and church bells ringing. The women organised the food, but goodness knows where they got it all from, bless them. I鈥檒l never forget August 1945; the war was over and I was leaving school to become an adult about to start work.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.