大象传媒

I was seven years old when war was declared, it was a Sunday and I was allowed out to play, normally this was not allowed on Sunday, but everyone was preoccupied with the threat of war. I went to my friend Vera's house to play with her. Vera's mum came out and said I should go home now as war had been declared. I remember skipping up the backway feeling quite pleased. There had been so much anxiety and concern, and being young had no idea how serious the situation was or what it meant. I thought they would be pleased. When I ran indoors I was quite surprised to find granny crying, she said "I had three in the first lot and there will be two more in this one" Someone said it would be all over by Christmas, granny said "Oh no it won't, they'll have him afore this one is finished"
She meant my young brother Ken who was just nine months old at the time. Her words came true, for Ken was one of the last to be called up for National Service.
We had been back at school for about two weeks as our summer holidays were timed later than the rest of the county to coincide with the Railway Works break as most dads worked 'inside' as we called it.
We returned to school on the Monday and the next few days were very strange The evacuees were arriving from London and the east coast. We were sitting three to a double desk, but it gradually sorted out as the war had not really started and many returned to London 'bombs or no bombs'.
The 'Vaccies' spoke funny and we teased them a lot, children can be so cruel. We were told we must not offer sweets to one little girl as she was 'Diabetic' we didn't know what that meant but I remember thinking selfishly I'm not sharing my sweets anyway.
These poor children were billeted with anyone who had room, elderly couples,widows, widowers, single maiden ladies, or old batchelors. They were blamed for all the usual epidemics, head lice, scabies and in 1941 Scarlet Fever when our school filled the local Isolation Hospital. Their parents blamed us and our primitive country ways.
Many returned to London when the expected air raids hadn't started,but when they did another wave of evacuees arrived.
We children thought the war was a great adventure.

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