大象传媒

In september 1941, an unexploded bomb landed in the local pub, 'the Gander Inn'. We were forced to leave the airraid shelter in the garden and sent to the local public shelter in Collingwood recreation ground. Then the next morning we went to an uncle to have our breakfast who lived just one house outside the barrier where we couldnt go in. For the next few weeks we slept in the airraid shelter in the park and we had our food at our aunts. At the time I was just over 6 and it was 'life'. I used to hate sleeping in the shelter because it wasnt home and there were so many people. I was excited because we couldnt go to school and I used to with my cousins. At 14 my brother Alan was a messenger boy, I wasnt jealous of him at all. What I didnt realise was that while I was in the shelters, mum and dad used to disappear and I thought they had gone for a walk but instead they had taken the backroutes to get home and feed the damm chickens!

Two nights before they exploded the bomb, mum went to feed the chickens she got caught by a policeman. My mother was slight deaf and he had to yell and run over, because he could see the light shining underneath the door. However my mum was in quite a state after being shouted at that she called him all the names under the sun.

On the day they exploded the bomb, my mum, brother and I were waiting at the barrier when they expoded it. When the policeman dropped the barrier, we all ran as fast as we could home with the pram with all our belongings in. The bomb made just a bang when it went off, I wasnt scared, I was just desperate to get home! When we opened the front door, the sight that greeted us was water running the stairs and blow out ceilings. What had happened was when the policeman had yelled at my mum, she had run out in such a panic she had left the tap running in the bath! I got sent out to play while my mum brother and various relations came over to clear up, I went to go and collect acorns from the big oak tree! It took a long time to get things sorted out at home.

My dad was a printer (compositer - this is where someone puts all the lead bits in to the machine in blocks so they could do all the printing). Like most men back in home, they had to take turns firewarching and I imagine that is why he wasnt around during the leak.
He used to cycle from sutton to ladbrooke grove. One day he caught my brother and another boy having a fight! He decided to leave them to finish it off and then brought him home with a huge bundle of comics that he had! We were a huge fan of comics especially as they were so difficult to get hold off, but then applied to many things.
I didnt feel deprived by the rations, my mum should to shop at the Coop where they had a very fair way of distributing the goods by putting the list of goods up and if you had a token you were eligible to get it.

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