大象传媒

My first evacuation
The war broke out on Sunday 3rd September 1939.

I had the first of my 3 evacuations on Friday 1st September 1939, 3 days before the start of the war. I was 7 my sister was 14. With our haversack and name labels we went from Aldgate station to Harrow-On-The-Hill. From there we were taken to Chorley Woods Village Hall. We sat in the hall until we were selected by one of the families viewing these strange creatures from London.

Finally we were picked out by a Mrs Yoe who took us back to her very smart home in The Clump, one of the better roads in Chorley Woods. My sister and I were given a room each. That was novel we were used to sleeping in the same bed. The grounds included a bowling green, a hard and a grass tennis court and a 18 hole putting green. There was also an acre of kitchen garden. I befriended the Joe the chauffeur/gardener.

Gardening
My first boo boo was, Joe handed me what I took to be onions with instructions to put them in the green house. Never one to admit there was something I did not know I went looking for a GREEN house. I found a glass house. Outside was a green water butt. I shoved the 鈥渙nions鈥� in there. A couple of days later Joe asked me for the bulbs. The only bulbs I knew were light bulbs. It turned out that he had given me some prize Dutch tulip bulbs and I showed him the soggy mess in the water butt. Then came the immortal phrase 鈥淕o way you haunt me鈥�.

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