大象传媒

GAS MASKS
When the war started we were each given a gasmask.
This went everywhere with us. If you turned up at school without it you were sent home again to fetch it. It must have been a nightmare for the teachers trying to keep gasmasks and owners together.
At one point someone decided our gasmasks must be tested out to see if they worked. We all lined up outside the school air-raid-shelter which had been filled with tear-gas ready to walk through. The idea was that if you came out the other door weeping you had a faulty gasmask. The whole thing was a complete failure as we were all howling before we ever went in.
I remember on another occasion a boy hit another lad over the head with his gasmask and the victim was carted off to hospital to have his head stitched. I don't know if the gasmask suffered any damage.

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