大象传媒

At the start of the Second World War, my mother took me to get some new shoes at the local shop. When we were served, my mum thinking the lady who had just served us looked miserable asked her what was wrong. She said"i am fed up with this job and I am leaving tonight".

Before you could say Jack Robinson, my mother said "right Janet, go upstairs and apply for her job", which I got, but as I was only 13 I had to apply to the Education for permission to leave school.

When I started the job in the shoe shop they has me cleaning the kitchen which had become filthy.

I think they told my mother that I had to work a black dress so as to look smart. It cost 7 shillings, which was a weeks wages.

I had not long started work when my mother received a letter from my sister Mary saying she was pregnant, and that she had collapsed while waiting in the queue for the children`s gas masks. Mary asked it I could go to Erdington, in Birmingham and help her with the four children and another expected.

Mary, her husband Robert and their four children to find work. He worked at the Nuffield tractor factory which had been changed into an army tank factory.

I had never been on a train before. I had`nt been further than New Brighton. I was given my train ticket an address and some lunch. when I look back I cant believe that I did all that on my own. I was even too shy or afraid to bring my lunch out of the paper bag. People, were bringing out their food on seviettes as there were no restaurant cards then.

I made it to Birmingham and it was decided that Mary and the children should come home to Liverpool. He husband had to stay because of his war work.

Back home I went to work in a bakery naned Cottles which was situated in Paradise street. We would give cakes and pies to the recently arrived sailors.

We would rush hot pies over to them for a quick snack and then they would move onto their destinations. Lady Sefton was grateful for what we did at short notice. Often she would not get a great deal of help.

Lady Sefton, used to get annoyed occasionally. When we walked down the long hall with our goods held high the sailors would pinch us from behind. We were sometimes given a hot meal, but we had no canteen. It was a great life if you did`nt weaken.

One day a group of sailors had been picked up presumably from the sea. They came in for a brief snack then left. They were not in full uniforms. Just Navy jumpers and wellies.

Later that day when these men left by bus. We waved them off and felt sorry for them until a small army van pulled up.

A tall erect man in a naval officers uniform alighted from the van. He wore holster but there was no gun in it. To our amazement he gave the Hitler sign to the sailers and only then did we realise that they were German.

There was an old lady who was brushing her bit of the pavement. On seeing that they were Germans she battered the windows with her brush. Up until then they were cheeky and had been giving us winks. After the old ladys show the pulled tongues at us.

Sadly Cottles was bombed with the loss of two firewatchers.

By now the war was getting bad. One night in our cellar we had six in our bed.Later we heard a great bang and my brother screamed as the old metal clock that had been hanging above his head dropped on him and cut his head. He was sick and white with shock.

We all dashed up the cellar stairs and out into the open. Running up our street to see what had happened as we new it was serious. When we got there the wardens were bringing out bodies and were using a pub called the "Flat Iron", as a mortuary. It was the first time in the war that I thought this is really what war is about, and I was scared.

The funny thing was, as we walked back to our house we all started laughing. We had`nt noticed in the dark that our faces were all covered with soot. We had to live in the shelter forweeks until our house was made safe.

I was then working in the Metal Box factory on war work. We worked for Vickers and Armstrong, who were aircradt builders making parts for Wellington Bombers and Stirling Bombers. I believe we made the part that joined the planes body to the wings.

When we were on night shift, officers from the three forces would come and expaln how important it was to get our work perfect. We also made machine gun cases and they had to be very precise. A tiny piece of metal burr could block the gun and put a mans life in danger.

On night the bosses who lived on the premises joined us in the canteen as we had supper a 2am. We had a little sing song and thtt cheers everyone up.

We had some good and bad times in the war. After the war I worked at Littlewoods Pools and was there for 5 years. Later on a Littlewoods night out at the New Bright Tower I met the man I was later to marry. But thats another story.

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