大象传媒

鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anita Howard (nee Sackett) from the Essex Action Desk CSV on behalf of herself and has been added to the site with her permission. Anita M. Sackett fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

My father Ronald W. Sackett worked at Little Staughton aerodrome near St. Neots in Bedfordshire. He was a clerk of works and later a station engineer who worked for the Ministry of Works Department helping to keep the airfields and runways open and running during the war.
We lived in Rushden, Northants and as there were no direct buses he would borrow a vehicle to get home when he was on leave. He told me that he had taught himself to drive on the airfield. Whilst he was there he lived in quarters on the site.
I remember going there once and in his room was a doll鈥檚 house which he was making for me. I was so excited. It had no roof but the windows had glass in them, there were some tiny stairs and several rooms. He told me he was going to put electric lights in it.

Soon it was the end of the war and I never saw it again. Mum said it was given to an American serviceman. However when I cleared out their house after my mother鈥檚 death I found a receipt for the local auction rooms which listed a doll鈥檚 house at two pounds. I often wondered who had my doll鈥檚 house!

Sometimes he would bring some biscuits from the 鈥榙rome, probably from the American forces but I was told to keep quiet about them or else we would get into trouble. I was probably about 4 years old at that time in 1944/5. I鈥檝e never forgotten the taste of those biscuits and longed for him to bring back some more.

Sweets and chocolates were rationed 3/4lb each a month IF you could get them in the shops. My mother had a sweet tooth so she saved the top tier of her 1939 wedding cake and stored it in an airtight tin. She eked it out to last the whole of the war.

Anita Sackett 2005

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