大象传媒

People say that you only remember the good times, but I don鈥檛 think that is necessarily true. I have many memories of the war, not because they were good, but because I was an impressionable age鈥even years old.
My earliest memory is the first time we had an air raid warning. The air raid sirens sounded at night and because it was all new to us we sought shelter. In our case it was down in the cellar. We went into the coal place under the cellar stairs, and stayed there in the dark with the coal until the all clear sounded. That was to be the ritual when the air raids began. Gradually, my father made things more comfortable for us, reinforced the stairs with timber, fitted a light, installed seating. We spent many hours in there during the air raids, which were frequent because we lived near the docks.
My father worked in ship repair and was required to spend nights at his work on firewatching duties. We were left alone all night and worried about his safety 鈥榯il he came back the next day. He was the required to work normally for the remainder of the day.
Food was rationed. Cakes were a luxury, and like many other items were hard to obtain. If we wanted some cake I was sent to the shops at 07.00 to queue until they opened. Sometimes by the time you got to the front of the queue everything was gone 鈥old out!
Everything was rationed, but to make sure that everyone received a fair share of necessary items such as sugar, butter, cheese etc. we were allocated ration books with coupons for each commodity. When the coupons were used up for the week, you waited until the next week to get more. Sweets too and chocolate were hard to come by and they were rationed. We saved up our coupons all week and bought something when we went to the cinema.
One night in Birkenhead, we went to the cinema, and during the performance, it was announced on the screen that an air raid was in progress. If we wished to remain, the show would continue. Those who wished to leave could do so. My Grandmother lived with us and she was very afraid during air raids, so we had to leave and go home to be with her. When we emerged from the cinema, there really was an air raid in progress. Incendiary bombs had dropped across the road and were burning fiercely. Other bombs were dropping near the docks, which we could see from where we where. My father, mother, brother and I had to make a run for it along the road. At that moment an enemy aircraft decided to machine gun the road we were in and we had to hide in doorways to take cover. I don鈥檛 remember being scared鈥� more like excited, perhaps at that tender age I didn鈥檛 realise the danger.
Earlier that year, at age seven, I had been evacuated to North Wales, like hundreds of other children, to avoid the air raids. When the expected raids didn鈥檛 materialise, many of us returned home again to our parents. Then the raids did come and some of us were sent back to North Wales again. It should be realised that we were very young children set away to strangers without our parents. I was very difficult. Some had nice 鈥渇oster homes鈥�, but some did not, and friction arose between the children whose homes we had been sent to, and the evacuees themselves.

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