大象传媒

My first recollection of the war is hanging over in the fence at the bottom of our garden when we lived at Nutfield in Surrey. The aerodrome was then named Nutfield but now is called Redhill, which is in Surrey. Also there were barrage balloons dotted all over the airfield. Based at the aerodrome there was a squadron of Canadian airmen. At times I looked up at the sky and it was black with bombers heading for London.

I remember that when the air raid siren went, we used to go round to a neighbour鈥檚 and we had to go into the larder under the stairs. We had to wait there for what seemed like ages. After a while we became blas茅 and didn鈥檛 worry about going.

When I was about 5 I used to stay with my granny at Caterham on the Hill, very near to Kenley aerodrome which is next to Coulsdon Common. We used to climb trees to watch the dogfights over the aerodrome and then we would play in the pill boxes. With a bottle of water and some jam sandwiches we would be happy to play for hours, even during air raids. My cousin was six years older than me, and very handsome and I had my first schoolgirl crush.

My mum and I were evacuated to Adamsdown, Cardiff and I can vividly remember bombs being dropped on the docks close to Barry where trains were taken to be restored. We stayed with a nice lady called Priscilla Druscilla Clarissa Corona Smart. We called her Auntie Cilla and her husband we called Uncle Tom who worked in the mines. He came home very dirty and had to have a bath in the back parlour in the tin bath. The rest of us could have a bath once a week. We took it in turns to go in the bath (using the same water) and then after the last person, the week鈥檚 washing went in. The bath tub had to be filled by kettles on the range.

When I was about 4, I was the only little one left in the village, so I used to just go off into school all by myself. I remember counting on an abacus frame. To write with we had a slate and some chalk.

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