大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Dunstable At War Team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was 3 years old at the beginning of the war and do remember many things that happened. I lived in Garden Road in Dunstable with my mother, father, sister, bother and my grandmother who slept in the front room downstairs. My father worked at Harris and Carters at the top of the road as a wheelwright and also carried out fire watching duties. It must have been quite an effort doing fire watching all night and then going back to work the next morning. I think my father was in a reserved occupation or maybe he was too old to go to war because he was born in 1900, but he often had to work away from home repairing machines.

One thing that sticks in my mind was the big blast wall that was built outside the back door and living room. It must have built by the Council; it was about 7ft tall and at an angle it was quite close to the house. I suppose it was to stop the windows blowing in and was taken down after the war. At the bottom of the garden we had a big dump, well we called it a dump because it was in the field. All the old railings that were taken down were put there; there were tyres and all sorts of metal, it was a really dangerous place but we used to get out at the bottom of the garden and go and play in there, we had great fun!

My aunt lived in Luton Road with her husband and my Grandfather and I can remember that when my mum used to go shopping for meat with her sister, she would take a knife with her and chop some meat off her ration to give to them. My father had an allotment and grew potatoes, beetroot, onions, parsnips and radishes. Potatoes mainly though; they helped to fill us up. We used to go blackberry picking as mum did lots of bottling and we had a few apple treess in our garden and so always had a desert with our meals. We used to pick those apples and then mum would store them down the cellar. We were always warm and well cared for. I can remember my sister and I had two very pretty dresses, I don鈥檛 know where they came from, they just appeared. I think they were someone鈥檚 bridesmaid鈥檚 dresses; you were just happy that you had a pretty dress.

There was an old copper boiler in the corner of the kitchen and on a Monday morning mum used to light the fire underneath. The house would fill up with steam. Mondays were always wet days and I don鈥檛 mean outside, I mean inside! I can remember the gas lighter coming around to light the gas lamp outside our house. (Lit very dimly towards the end of the war, as blackout ceased).

I had had my tonsils out in hospital when I was 7. I went to the hospital on one of those old buses up Plumpton Road to the Children Hospital. We were shut away without visitors for a week. It was very painful and I felt very homesick; the only good thing was that we were given ice cream to eat!

My Aunt in Luton Road used to give us 3d a week I think we had 6d from Mum and Dad. My aunt would buy us funny stories by Enid Blyton and the Girls Crystal but that was a bit later on, so we had plenty to read. Mum and Dad had lots of books, one in particular mother liked, Hunters Marjorie. There was a colouring competition in the Daily Sketch every week. On one occasion I won a prize - it was one of those books that open up with animals inside it.

Those funny old busses going to Luton were so luxurious with leather seats. We didn鈥檛 go that far really, just to Luton, and when going to Hastings, we went by train. We went to St Albans sometimes to the Abbey and then down by the lake, so we did have a few treats. For games, we played skipping and hopscotch. We used to draw hopscotch on the path and occupied ourselves with lots of different games rolling hoops down the road. I belonged to the GLB, the Girls Live Brigade. We used to meet at the Methodist Church in Victoria Street, now the Polish Church. We used to listen to the radio a lot; it was the highlight of our day to listen to children鈥檚 hour when we came home from School.

We had Street parties at the end of the war when flags would be brought out but I鈥檝e no idea where the food came from! A lot of people were still in the East; my sister's father in law was in the East and it was a while before he came back home.

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