大象传媒

VE Day Party

It was May 1945 and the end of the war. I was three years old and the street had a VE Day party. Our street was a lonely line of terrace houses opposite a railway line and an engine shed. This was somewhere between Harrogate and Knaresborough. To the front of the houses ran a beck which eventually disappeared beneath the curve of a railway embankment. At the bottom of the street was what was called the 鈥淭ankey field鈥�, a rough piece of ground that had a few sedge-like grasses in a boggy mess. It was there that the older boys made a huge bonfire and I remember that before night-fall some of the boys were bouncing about a life-size dummy stuffed with straw and paper. I recall the dummy鈥檚 face. It was daubed with tar and the features included a little moustache and a wisp of hair falling over one eye. They seemed to have lots of fun showing it to the grown-ups and one of the boys pushed it into my face and then kicked the figure about the street. I felt sorry for the dummy. They said they were going to burn him. He didn鈥檛 seem to have a name.

I鈥檇 never been to a party before but they all said it was going to be good so they said I鈥檇 better look forward to it. The party was held in the Railway Canteen which was between our street and the High Street. It was a bleak looking place from the inside and on the outside there was a wooden set of stairs which led to the first floor where the men had their union meetings. There were a few steps which opened into the kitchen and we had the party in the eating area. I can鈥檛 recall what we had as our main course but I remember someone putting a big tin on the table and when the cover was removed the contents seemed to give off steam 鈥� just a trace of steam. I think that was the first ice-cream I鈥檇 ever had. It tasted all right and I thought I might have some more but it had all gone.

One man who sat on the wooden bench had a big cyst on the back of his neck. Wherever he went the cyst was sure to go. But my interest in the cyst and the party disappeared quite quickly when he took out a most strange and unusual piece of equipment: it was an accordion. I鈥檇 never seen one of those either. It had interesting designs, lots of buttons, black and white keys and best of all a bellows-like centre which flowed to and fro as he worked it. But even better than that was the sound it made. I鈥檇 never heard live music before and it was a surprise when all the grown-ups started to sing. I don鈥檛 know what it was they sang but they seemed very happy about it and before I was taken home everything seemed to be getting very noisy. We, that is the children, had a group photograph taken. My friend was on it and he was about as old as me.

That night the men set off the steam whistles on the railway engines and the day ended, as did the war.

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