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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Angela Cutting of Leicester City Reference and Information Library on behalf of Margaret Hughes and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The first week in August was when everybody went on holiday. That was the Bank Holiday, and you could not take any other time off from your war work. You could not catch any train you wanted to. You had to take what I believe was called a "Regulation Ticket" and get in the queue in the yard at the front of London Road station [Leicester]. One year we set off on the Friday evening with a couple of friends as soon as we had our tea, and got in the queue which was endless. It just curved backwards and forwards till the whole yard was full. Each time a train came in a man at the head of the queue would say how many could go down to the platform. After a couple of hours we heard a rumble and saw some men pushing a piano across from the YMCA. They started to play and the whole crowd started to sing "We'll meet again", "The white cliffs of Dover", etc.

At last, at about midnight, we reached the head of the queue and we were allowed down onto the platform, together with half a dozen girls who worked at the same firm as my husband. We were told that the train would make one stop at Manchester. After we got on our way, one of the girls who were in the next compartment to us came and asked my husband if he would wake them up when we got to Manchester because they were going to put their hair up in curlers and then try and get some sleep. The train did not stop at Manchester as promised and the next thing we knew was a voice shouting "Blackpool Central, everybody out"! The girls were not in holiday mood standing there on the platform with their hair covered in curlers.

It was only 5am and we felt we could not go to the hotel at that time, so we sat in a tram shelter on the sea front for an hour. At 6am we went and sat on a seat under the hotel window, hoping that when the landlady got up she would take pity on us. She came out and said she would cook us a breakfast before the other guests got up. I remember that while we sat at the table waiting we had a good laugh because none of the plates were flat on the table and they moved about when you tried to cut your food. The landlady said they could only get seconds!

There were lots of troops in Blackpool during the war. Many were Polish airmen. Some of the small hotels were paid to keep so many rooms available at all times for the intake of military personnel, but a lot used to risk it and let the rooms. If you had booked your accommodation you were all right, but if somebody came late in the evening with nowhere to go, our landlady would explain the situation and say that if they were willing to risk it she would too. Half way through the week there was a commotion outside on the landing at about midnight. We opened the door to see what it was all about. Troops had arrived and the landlady was getting the people out of their rooms. We all took shelter in other guests' bedrooms while the landlady remade the beds. When the men were all in their rooms, we crept down the stairs with the landlady to her private sitting room where we slept on chairs or the floor. Nobody got upset about this, it was all a great joke to everyone including the people who had lost their beds. We still had all the attractions of Blackpool – great shows with Tessie O'Shea, Frank Randle, Jimmy Clitheroe and Jewel and Warris; "On with show" on the North Pier; the Tower Circus and dancing in the Tower Ballroom. There was not a drunk in sight, all the young people gathered in the Milk Bars for milk shakes and soup!

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