大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of David Wainwright and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."
What I remember most about the war is the sharing and caring. People had nothing, but they were always sharing. Everyone grew their own vegetables and everyone offered them to their immediate neighbours. Every mother was a Florence Nightingale. If one mother was ill, another mother would come round.

We had an Anderson shelter which was shared between two houses. The dads would stand outside and watch the doodlebugs going over. We were a very close family, mother, brother and sister and every Sunday we would meet at each others houses. My father owned Wainwright鈥檚 butchers. He joined the Home Guard and had to go out on parade and had training. He never had any bullets though. One of our grandparents had diabetes and had to have legs taken off. But all the family did shifts in helping out. I used to help out with the washing.

I went to Park Street School during the war and on weekends I used to go fishing to Greenlands ponds. I would go all day, there was no fear.

Our neighbours had two evacuee children from Belgium stay with them.

We always went to the Co-op and I still know my mothers dividend number. There were no cars and we always went everywhere on the bus. Every week we had a family visit to our grandparents in Sheffield.

No one ever grumbled and there was no jealousy. They were happy times with a commitment to the community.

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