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CHAPTER 17

We had a steady flow of new teachers, many had joined the forces and others had returned home to Leeds. Some of the new teachers were straight from college, they didn’t seem much older than the girls they were teaching and unfortunately, a few of the older and bolder pupils made their lives a misery. I suspect the children were becoming bored with not having proper lessons and being kept in the dark about what exactly was happening at home and on the war front. One teacher did suggest we kept a diary of our lives at Louth and our experiences and thoughts about the war in general. At the onset, we were all enthusiastic but as the weeks wore on we became bored and so they tailed off. I now wish I had continued with my journal and saved it.
It was at this time people began to notice that Bernard, aged only seven, had begun to look ill and was noticeably fretting for home and mother. Mr and Mrs XXXXX were very young and had only recently married. Their baby was just a toddler. The house they occupied was near to the hospital where Mr XXXXX worked as a nurse. Being a very large residence, they had not yet been able to obtain the furniture to make it into a home.
The large bedroom where Bernard slept was completely bare of a carpet or any other kind of furnishing. They installed him a very tiny camp bed right behind the door. He wasn’t allowed to have any light on whatsoever, at any time. The bedroom windows were completely bare, without curtains and not blacked out. Mr XXXXX had taken the bulb out of the socket. After being used to a big family and never in all his life had he slept alone, he was terrified and cold. We had never been allowed to venture upstairs so we were not aware of Bernard’s bedroom arrangement and he never enlightened us, he was so afraid of Mrs XXXXX.
Bernard was noticeably scared of Mrs XXXXX; she bullied him when her husband was at work. Also we never knew what kind of meals he was given to eat. Being a dizzy young woman, she wasn’t cut out to be a proper mother or housewife, to my idea. Her time seemed to be spent lazing on the settee, reading romantic novels and chain smoking.
In contrast to her, Mr XXXX was a kind, lively man and good fun to be with, but of course, he was mostly at work and being a nurse he worked shifts. Also, as there must have been a shortage of staff, owing to the war, he also worked many hours of overtime. He was shortly to be enlisted into the Medical Corps. This life took its toll on Bernard and the state of his health was distressing Aunt Lil and Mrs Elam. Why hadn’t the teachers noticed?
As a result of this, one Sunday afternoon, Aunt Lil instructed me to sit at the dining table and she dictated me a letter for my mother. It stated Bernard was not very well and as he was obviously homesick, suggested mother should come to Louth to see for herself.
On the following Sunday, mother arrived by bus and after seeing Barbara and I were all right, she collected Bernard and took him home.
Recently Bernard told me that he vividly remembered the journey, the bus stopped at a transport café where mother bought him a mug of hot Horlicks, which he had never tasted before. He thought it was absolutely delicious.
According to his state of health it must have been just what his under-nourished little body needed. The headmaster and Mr Chiltern, hearing mother was returning him to Leeds, tried desperately hard to persuade her to leave him at Louth, promising to find him much better accommodation but mother was so worried about his health she declined their offer.
Recently Bernard has also told me that he was so ill at Mrs XXXXX, on a night, in the big, dark, freezing room, he would feel himself floating up to the ceiling and looking down upon his own body.
I cannot understand why it took me so long to realise he was desperately ill, but I was only a selfish, thirteen year old. at the time and living my own full life. I have really felt utterly guilty about the plight of Bernard ever since growing up. I was put in charge on that fateful Friday when I told mam that ‘I’ll take care of both the kids.’ I ought to have been more aware of his circumstances. I was a busy Guide, working for my badges, knitting, socialising, doing jigsaws etc.
I spent a lot of my spare time entertaining Aunt Max with all my chatter. Aunt Lil, also relied on me to do her shopping alone and also a friend of hers owned a pet shop where I sometimes helped out on a Saturday morning. I felt really grown up.

CHAPTER 18

On the 19th March I would be fourteen years of age and considered old enough to leave school and begin working for a living These prospects were constantly on my mind. Aunt Kath did offer me a job at her home and bakery at Mareham-le-Fen. I didn’t know quite what she had in mind, but I didn’t want to either work in a bakery or be somebody’s maid. I felt I needed to go back to Leeds, the town I loved and try to find employment learning needlework, probably becoming a dressmaker.
I knew that I had no intention of going into the tailoring trade, my ambition was to be a dressmaker. From what the factory girls had told me, a person is only taught a small section of making a suit, either pockets and called ‘pocket hands’ or lapels or fly’s or linings etc. I wanted to be able to make a garment from beginning to the end. My aspiration was to be a fashionable dressmaker, using beautiful materials.
When the end of term arrived and we were attending assembly. The headmistress called Miriam and I up onto the stage. I was handed a prize of a florin (two shillings) for being the most industrious girl and Miriam was given the same for being the neatest.
Perhaps this soothed Miss Hepworth’s conscience about the vests and socks I had knitted for her.
On the following Sunday mother travelled to Louth again by bus and this time it was to take me home. I said my tearful farewells to Aunt Lil, Dad, Aunt Max (and her bottomless bag of mint imperials), to the Bournes, the Elams, Mrs West and all my friends with a feeling of sadness, promising to keep in touch and visit them before very long.
On the bus back to Leeds, I couldn’t help feeling excited at the prospect of renewing friendships. The fact, that I was now considered to be an adult, I was eager to be in the land of the earners.
I arrived home at 18, Willow Terrace Road, all clean, neat and tidy. I carried my belongings in a suitcase given to me by Aunt Lil; vastly different to the little old haversack I had set off with on that fateful day.
As we approached our house, a neighbour waylaid Mother. So on opening the door alone, I was confronted with my sister Dorothy and her fiancé Jack Davey. They had been staying at Jack’s parents for the weekend and he had just returned Dorothy home, he was kissing her goodnight before leaving to catch the last bus to Gildersome.
Only our mongrel, (Mick), showed any signs of welcoming me, she jumped up wagging her rear and was deliriously excited that I had returned home. But I felt that I was an unwelcome intruder; all I had received from Dorothy and Jack was an unenthusiastic.
‘Hello, so you’re back.’
Looking around the kitchen, I was utterly dismayed, it was so untidy and all the clothes pegs, behind the door were fully occupied.
‘Where shall I hang my coat?’ I muttered.
Jack, laughed, disengaged himself from Dorothy’s embrace and looking up, he eyed me with a huge grin and answered in his most broad Yorkshire accent.
‘Eh lass, tha’s at ‘ome now, we’re not posh ‘ere, just chuck it down the’er like everybody else does.’ Motioning to a chair behind the door
Stifling a sob, I raced upstairs to the bedrooms, not knowing just where I was going to sleep. Mother, having been away since very early that morning to catch the bus to collect me, hadn’t had time for any kind of housework and so the beds were unmade and everywhere was untidy and in a muddle
I flung myself down onto a bed with Mick whimpering at my feet and I sobbed for ages, letting tears flow freely. I wept for Aunt Lil and everything I had left at Louth. Why ever had I decided to return to Leeds. I was loved and respected in by Aunt Lil and all the family, why on earth hadn’t I accepted the job Aunt Kath had offered to me?
Eventually, I knew I had to pull myself together, I was most certainly on my own now, no way could I possibly turn back the pages. Tomorrow was my fourteenth birthday and I had to find myself a job. I was to sink or swim.
After a while readjusting to Leeds and that way of life, being swept to and fro by the tides. I eventually did swim.

WORDS 14,500

OUR EVACUATION
1st September, 1939
by
Mary Senior

We urchins, three, set off for school,
Excitement throbbed our veins,
A mystery weekend, carefully planned,
We raced up leafy lanes.

Carrying gas masks - haversack,
With a change of underwear,
Barley sugars, cheese and biscuits,
Laughing – we hadn’t a care.

‘Be home on Monday, Mam don’t cry,
I’ll take care of both the kids,
It’s only a practice, teacher says,
I’ll do as Mistress bids.’

With tearful eyes, Mam waved us off,
We clambered on a bus,
Whilst driving down to a waiting train,
I wondered ‘Why all the fuss?

We arrived at Louth in Lincolnshire,
Wretched – hungry – cold,
Counted and herded into groups,
I did as I was told.

Bundled into a shiny car,
By a strident volunteer,
‘We haven’t to be parted, our Mam said,’
But the lady didn’t hear.

She lifted Bernard from her car,
Dumped him at a hostile house,
Horrified, I waved ‘goodbye’
Skulking – timid as a mouse.

A kindly soul selected me,
She’d only room for one,
But her neighbour, Mrs Elam smiled,
‘Here Barbara, Ducks, come on.’

The weekend proved exciting,
Could hardly believe my luck,
An orchard lush with ripening fruit,
Aunt Lil, - an excellent cook.

A feast, a bath a comfy bed,
What more could an urchin need,
A half-pound block of Cadbury’s milk,
Amazing luxury – indeed.

3rd of September thirty-nine,
Chamberlain read narration,
Aunt Lil, anxiously turned to me,
‘You’re here for the duration.’

Then suddenly dawned the dreadful truth,
Our teachers - all had lied,
Not just a fun weekend away,
‘I WANT ME MAM.’
I cried.

o0o0o0o0o0o

A PIECE OF CAKE

By Mary Senior

Remembering searchlights-blackouts-queues,
Utter despair – when needing new shoes,
Shelters – shrapnel – drones of planes,
Rookies marching - thro’ country lanes.

A constant yearning to buy something new,
Deep craving for sweets – all too few,
Taste of dried egg, cheap marg and spam,
An evacuee crying ‘I WANT ME MAM’.

No bananas – oranges or fine cuts of meat,
Laddered stockings – (I tried to look neat),
Placards depicting ‘Walls have ears.’
Utter despair as war lasted years.

The Movietone News – troops climbing aboard,
Censored letters from loved ones abroad,
Dreaded telegrams – advising the worst,
Then as a ‘prisoner’ – grievings reversed.

Barbed wire fences all round the coast,
Volunteer-ladies - hot tea and toast,
St John – Red Cross – concealing emotions,
As bombed-out and injured, receive their devotions.

When hostilities ended in forty-five,
Indebted gratitude – As I had survived,
Turning blind-eyes to grim devastations,
Parades and parties – great celebrations.

Horrendous holocaust –soon reached our ears,
Massacre of innocents, through all the years,
Returning prisoners- we then heard relate
How barbaric atrocities – had been their fate.

I felt stupid – ignorant – selfish and mean,
‘A PIEC E OF CAKE ‘ my war had been,
I’d grumbled at shortages – blackouts and queues,
HOW HUMBLE I FELT ON HEARING THE NEWS.

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