大象传媒

We shared the bathwater. The bath was enamel with claw legs, rust marks down from the taps and a flat plug on a string because the chain had broken years ago. We screwed the flannels into 'bullets' and shot each other with a complicated set of rules and forfeits. The water, which was heated by a coke boiler in the kitchen below, slowly cooled and our fingers and toes became wrinkled. We washed our hair with soap and dried ourselves with utility towels put over the hot water tank. The cat would try and sneak into the dark warmth to have her kittens.

There was no central heating or radiators. The downstairs was heated with coal fires which our parents riddled and re-filled using coal scuttles, closing the top and opening the bottom to create a draft. The upstairs bedrooms were heated with gas fires which plopped and fizzed and sometimes blew out but we were safety conscious. If we scorched our socks trying to dry them too near the fires, then we had to wear scorched socks. Our bedroom was so cold in winter, there were beautiful frost patterns on the glass and we scrape our names and cryptic messages on it with our fingernails. We would see who could dress the fastest under the blankets, throwing out our cold hot-water-bottles.

We wore darned lisle stockings tucked into brown leather lace-up shoes, warm vests and knickers, skirts and jumpers, knitted scarves and mittens, and rubberised macs but nothing kept out the rain and the dye would colour our legs red and green. We walked to school or caught the bus which was often full up, and later we cycled, frequently falling off and grazing our knees. We put Dettol and Zeekol on the wounds and wrapped handkerchiefs round them. We pulled out splinters with tweezers and put lint over blisters. We rubbed bruises with wintergreen and used pumice stone to get the bicycle oil off our ankles. We played at hospitals using the same remedies on dolls and toy animals. Mum made me an apron with a Red Cross on it and I nursed my toys tenderly in shoeboxes for beds.

We had a dressing-up trunk full of old beaded black shawls and rustling taffeta petticoats and we would parade around acting out 'Caesar and Cleopatra' and 'Lorna Doone'. Because we were afraid of bombs falling on the house we would act out escape routes, shinning up and down drainpipes and crawling across sloping tiled roofs. Our front door had a Yale latch and when we locked ourselves out we would put our games to good practice, burgling our own home, squeezing through the toilet window or levering up a stubborn sash window, clinging with one hand to cast iron guttering.

We listened to the wireless and played cards during the long dark winter evenings with black-out curtains showing no chink of light. We played Rummy, Patience, Racing Demon and Cheat. We had hilarious parties playing Sardines, Hidden Objects and Clumps - drawing Nursery Rhymes or Proverbs, only able to say yes or no, whilst others tried to guess what it was. In the summer we played in the woods, constructing dens, climbing trees, stalking people, keeping out of sight, escaping from 'prison' and fooling the enemy, awarding ourselves medals for particularly daring deeds.

Our parents turned the garden into a vegetable plot, growing runner beans, potatoes and salad, with fruit trees and currant bushes so we were seldom short of fresh food. We also kept ducks because eggs were rationed. Food was scarce. Stale bread went into the ducks, vegetable stalks went into the compost heap and bones, after delicious soup, went into the dog. The cat ate fish heads bought for a penny and sometimes the fish bones stuck in her teeth - it took several of us to hold her while the bravest pulled out the bone. We did not have a 'frig. Milk was kept in a galvanised bucket with a wet cloth over the returnable bottles.

Clothes were washed by hand and squeezed through the mangle. We took turns at washing up the dishes and doing the ironing and squabbled as to whose turn it was.

We loved reading and got annoyed at being interrupted. We read 8 volumes of Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia - wonderful. When we weren't arguing, we would sit with our toes on the hearth, reading Enid Blyton, King Arthur, Hiawatha and Greek Legends whilst the striking clock ticked away the time.

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