大象传媒

Reminiscences of a Meltonian

I was born in Melton in 1921 in King Street. My grandmother owned 10 of the houses in the street. My grandfather was a master plumber. My first job was in a shop near the market place and I then went to work at the towns two cinemas, the Plaza and the Regal.
I was 19 years old when war broke out and I had to decide whether to go into the forces or do a man鈥檚 job in civilian life. I decided on the latter and was for a time a projectionist at the cinemas. I later went to work for Boulton and Paul helping to make the Horsa gliders which were used in the Arnhem Campaign. I was responsible for fitting compasses into the Horsa鈥檚 nose part.

One incident I can remember was from when I was working at the cinema. My friends and I had gone out one morning to get biscuits and tea for our break. We were on our way to Mrs Towers little shop when a German plane flew over very low and started to fire its machine gun.. A man shouted to us to take cover and it all happened so suddenly. A bomb was dropped in Brook Street .

We had young men from all over the world in Melton during the war, Americans , Canadians and Poles. Many of the Polish made Melton their home after the war was over and many friendships made at that time exist still.

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