大象传媒

I was 4 when the war started and just about to start my first year at school. Many things from the war stick in my head, I remember at school when the sirens went off, we ran with our gas masks into the shelters in the playground. Once inside the teachers would keep us amused by making us sing songs like 10 green bottles and such like. It stopped use listening to the planes overhead and being afraid although i doubt even if we listened it would mean very much to us.
I especially remember the planes, my father once took me to see one which had crash landed on top of a house, the fire had already been put out but it was still a rather spectacular if irregular sight.
Another memorable plane incident was went one of the small yellow training planes from RAF Whittering had landed on top of someones outhouse. The trainee pilot was just sat inside the coc pit looking a little dazed but none the worse for wear.
But the german planes brought with them bombs which caused terrible dammage i remember going to see a house which had been bombed, it was the end house of a terrace and the entire end wall had just been blasted away. It left a perfect cross section of the house you could see straight into the hall and the living room. Neighbours tried in vain to protect the familles' privacy by hanging curtains in front of the wreckage but it did little good that was untill the civil defence people came and covered it all with tarpaulins.
In the war we heard a lot of planes going over and by the end my sister and i could lie in bed and tell whether the plane going over was english or german. As they had very distinctive engine noises.
As a child, the phrase "war" meant very little and we used to go out to collecting the ticker tape, we used it to make christmas decorations!
My father owned a butchers in Stamford so even when rationing was brought in we never went hungry as my father kept, killed and sold the pig meat. We had several pigs kept around the back of thr shop.
Rationing was dictated by coupons which were given in exchange for goods. Every weekend my sister and i would help my father to count the coupons which would then be taken to the Ministry of Foods office.
One memory which really stand out to me was that every friday we went to tea with ourgranny. this was because the butchers tended to be evry busy and they wanted us out of the way. we went to her house from school and she would look after us and give us tea. But in the war it was decided that every one who lived alone should give up some of their time to look after soldiers. As they didnt get much time to relax and have a normal life. And so it happened that twice a week my granny wold look after two Airmen. they would stay at her house and listen to her radio, for of course television had not been invented. It seems odd now but back then it was how the world worked. And so we would have tea with the airmen on a friday and, as we were two young girls they would walk us home in the evening and point out stars and constellations. Only being very young we did not know any of this and so it was very exiting.
I quess the perspective of a childs makes a lot of difference to your outlook on the war. people either remember it in either a very positive or a very negative way. I personlly saw it in a good ay and i do not think my childhood was too badly affected by the outbreak of war.

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