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I remember cycling from Raydon with friends to meet up with others at the cinema in Hadleigh. It was always a very social occasion but ‘incredibly noisy’! If there was any disturbance to the film, hundreds of little feet would stamp the floor, children would snap their braces and blow up and burst paper bags! ‘We used to cheer and shout and boo at the ‘baddies’ and they used to come in and shout at us to be quiet.’

I grew up near the Raydon airfield and remember the Americans sending their trucks out to pick up the local girls and take them to dances. They were able to provide lavish refreshments and big bands and the American ‘jitterbug’ was soon to become the most popular form of dance.

My dad was the organist at Raydon church and was very musical. Our house always had a lot of singing. We used to have parties when all my aunties would come along and we’d all sing together.

Some songs like ‘We’ll Meet Again’ expressed wartime separation, but others like ‘Roll Out The Barrel’ and ‘You Are My Sunshine’ encouraged people to ‘keep smiling through’ with their comic cheer.

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