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During a six-month period of evacuation from Essex to Northampton I was billeted with the Ellis family at number 5 Uppingham Street (I believe that this is now demolished and redeveloped).

The lady of the house was, I thought, a very strict disciplinarian and always insisted that I did my bit around the house like wash-up and dry the breakfast things before going to school.

She was also a very proud lady so, like most of the housewives in Uppingham Street, she always cleaned outside the terraced house and whitened the front door step most mornings. Well, on this particular morning I completed the washing and wiping up and was flicking the huge piece of old sheet that acted as a tea towel over the string line that stretched across the scullery (kitchen). Now this kitchen included a huge fireplace with a mantelshelf that was crammed full of all the medical items, bars of soap etc. Right on the corner of the shelf was a handle-less cup in which ‘Auntie’ kept one set of her false teeth — she had two sets you see. I think the idea was one set to eat with and another set to smile through!

Disaster struck as the cloth flicked over the line and just caught the cup that hit the stone floor with a crash. The teeth flew across the floor and just as the bottom set came to a stop they broke into three pieces. The cup and top set were undamaged so I quickly scoped up all the remains, put them into the cup, added water and rebalanced the cup on the edge of the shelf. A quick mop around the floor with the piece of sheet and my tracks were all covered — I thought.

The worry of ‘Auntie’ finding here favourite eating teeth broken stayed with me at school that morning and I know that I learned nothing as I could not concentrate at all. At 12-30pm I arrived home for dinner, we always had our main meal at ‘lunch-time’ in this household. As usual the meal was all served up an on the table when ‘Auntie’ lifted down her teeth cup and plunged her hand into the water. Her face contorted into an incredible expression that I will always remember — and a look of total disbelieve.

It seemed that my mopping up was not as thorough as I thought it had been and she had now realised where all the water on the kitchen floor had come from.

I was scolded for my accident. It cost 15/- (75p) to have the teeth repaired so, after some smart negotiation by my Mum (who was billeted at no 31) it was agreed that we each would pay 5/- towards the repairs. As I was on just 6d pocket money a week it was to take me 10 weeks to repay my share. Luckily, a few weeks later Mum decided that we should return to Essex so poor old Mrs Ellis is still owed a few bob from me.

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