大象传媒

It was very quiet, really, where we were. I think the chocolate factory was bombed once, and my brother had to dive into a ditch one night, on his way home from courting, because there was bombing, but that was about it. My two brothers who were in the forces both had shrapnel wounds, but they weren't too bad either.

The biggest effect was the evacuees. I was married in 1937, and when the war started we had evacuees from Bootle billeted on us. They were Roman Catholics, and I can still remember their accents, and the way they said the name of the local priest - "Father Harvey". One of the evacuees stayed for a long time, and after he left he wrote and asked if he could come back and live with me again.

I worked in forestry, trimming trees that had been chopped down; they were used for pit props, mostly. It was a good life. We worked from 9 until 5 or 6, and most of the time I enjoyed being out of doors. We would stop work at lunchtime and light a fire. We would have a smoke, and something to eat. People kept pigs, and we would often have a nice piece of ham from one of the pigs. You could hold the ham over the fire, with a bit of bread underneath to catch the dripping. And we'd tell stories - oh, such stories! You never hear the like now.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.