大象传媒

HUDSON ROAD DAY CENTRE

I lived at 9 Hamilton Road Salisbury. Mum was a chef in RAF and dad was a firefighter on the roof of the Odeon cinema. Mum helped prepare the meals at Mondrall Hall. We had blast walls built in front of our windows and an Anderson shelter put into the front room. My brother was born in September he had a Mickey Mouse gas mask. The rest of the family had ordinary gas masks and we had to take them everywhere. I went to St Marks School in Wyndham Road from 1937-43 then to St Edmunds School in Church Lane until 1946. We had to go into a trench when the siren went or had drill. They were damp, cold and sometimes had drips coming through. The benches were quite hard to sit on. We didn鈥檛 learn any cookery because of rationing.
#We had scrambled egg made with powdered egg. Sometimes someone would give my mother a rabbit which she would make into a stew so that it would last a little longer. We had an allotment up by Hudsons Road which helped out with vegetables. Sunday teatime treat was pork dripping with a lovely jelly underneath. Roast pork or whatever meat you could get was much better than any meat you get today even though it was wartime, our meals had no additives like today. Where the old swimming pool was in the council grounds was a prefabricated hut where mothers could leave their babies and children while they worked.
Iron gates and fencing were taken to be melted down. The ARP wardens would come knocking on your door if a glimmer of light was shining through. A bomb came through a couple鈥檚 house in Castle Street 鈥� they were sitting having their breakfast. The bomb came down through the table! Fortunately it did not explode.
During the war, mum had to take in a lodger 鈥� you dare not say no. She had a soldier who came from Weston super Mare someone from the RAF, a Land Girl and even an evacuee from Portsmouth. When the Americans came into the war, she had an American Officer; his wife would send him a food parcel now and then which he gave to mum. What I remember liking was tinned Spam 鈥攚hich I still like it now!
We children used to like to wave to the soldiers in tanks and lorries. At the bottom of our gardens we had the railway line so we could wave to the soldiers going by train. When it was the Americans, they would throw out tins as well.

My uncle had a boot and shoe repair shop. He used to have kit bags full of boots and shoes from the American army when they were stationed at UKLF (United Kingdom Land Forces. Another uncle, George White was stationed in Brussels, Holland and North Africa. When he was in North Africa it was Christmas my mother sent him a Christmas cake which she had made and iced. She put it in a tin and put a cloth around it then paper and she declared it as books. It arrived in perfect condition. When one of the captains saw it he said 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a jolly good book, White!鈥� However he enjoyed a piece of cake!
One day we were shopping in Silver Street when a German plane started shooting, we all had to run into Timothy Whites luckily no one was hurt. It was during the afternoon,
We had a street party to celebrate VE and VJ day. All the neighbours got together and provided a wonderful tea. We had a shop on the corner of Hamilton road and on VJ Day we were having a party. I suddenly noticed there were 2 soldiers fighting at the bottom of the road. I happened to say so to another man who was there and ran off down the road because I was always nosy. He came down after me and got the other man off but before we got there, he had his belt off and with the brass buckle was going to hit the soldier on the ground, across the head with it. There was quite a crowd of men gathered round and I said, 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 you do something to help?鈥� They didn鈥檛 answer me so I ran to a neighbour and asked her to ring the police which she did. Before they got there, the friend of one of the soldiers dragged him off and dragged him away. The other soldier got up and I said he had better come up to our house to have his head washed but my mother couldn鈥檛 ever stand the sight of blood so she said that I had to do it. They caught the man who started it down by the bus station.

We had no TV but listen to radio programmes like Dick Barton and Snowy, the Archers. We played games like Ludo, Snakes and Ladders and also card games we learnt embroidery, knitting and loved to read annuals and comics.

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