大象传媒

My father was a police sergeant in the City of Birmingham Police force. So during air raids he was always on duty. Not far from where we lived was an air force barrage balloon station. I believed that they were used to stop low flying planes they looked like great silver whales in the sky.
One night, the air raid shelter being full of water yet again ,my stepmother, who was a very dramatic person indeed, her two sisters a little less dramatic ! My cousin John, baby Tony and myself were in the dining room during an air raid. This night we heard a loud swishing sound above the house, my stepmother shouted鈥� OH MY GOD WE ARE BEING GASSED IN OUR BEDS鈥� I suppose that it sounded a lot more dramatic than 鈥渨e are being gassed in our dining room鈥�.. Quickly we put on our gas masks. Young Tony was shoved into a type of carry cot and filtered air pumped into it, he was most upset of course and screamed but to no avail, it was saving his life! My stepmother threw water over the blanket covering the window and door. This was to stop the gas seeping into the room from outside. Gas masks were sealed with rubber and breathing in and out the rubber vibrated and made very rude noises. John and I laughed so much that the eye pieces steamed up completely. About half an hour later we heard footsteps coming up the hallway, we were being invaded of course! The door slowly opened and a very wet blanket fell upon a very outraged person, and from the language coming from that person we realized that it was my father, another cause for John and me to fall about! One glare from Dad shut us up. After he had calmed down he explained in all good faith that our barrage balloon had broken away from its mooring and the cable was swishing over the houses. The emergency being over we gratefully removed our gas masks and tea made for a very wet policeman.

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