大象传媒

鈥淲hen the Second World War was declared on the 6th September 1939 we were living in St Pauls Bristol. My husband Trevor was a steel erector working at Filton aerodrome, building a hanger for the Brabazon aeroplane. He was soon sent to Weston-super-Mare to work clearing up and rebuilding an ammunition factory that had a direct hit.
The raids were so bad in Bristol; we went to the shelters in the garden every night, it was so frightening. In 1940 we were told if anyone could, to get out, to be evacuated.
We put our furniture in store and came to Taunton; I was born here and my family lived here. We stayed with my parents at No 8 Belmont Road; they had an air raid shelter in the front room, a big iron table. We always knew when the German planes were coming, as they sounded so different to ours. We didn鈥檛 have any bombs dropped in Taunton, just one outside but no one was hurt.
Trevor travelled by train to Weston to work, his weekly return ticket cost 1/11d [9.58p]. We had our ration books; when we bought food, clothes, etc., we gave some coupons. We had one meatless day a week, I cooked the vegetables, fried onions, put the gravy in it, and it was very tasty and nourishing. We had to be so careful with the food as the blowflies laid eggs on it and it had to be thrown away; there were no fridges or freezers in those days. We had dried egg. We enjoyed scrambled egg, omelette, and egg sandwiches. We had to boil the milk every evening or it would be sour in the morning; sometimes I bought a pint of red top full cream milk. I put the cream into another milk bottle with a pinch of salt, put a hand over each end and shook it from side to side until a nice lump of butter formed, that was a treat to have on our bread.
I had an old hand sewing machine [with which] I made the children鈥檚 clothes, mostly from our old ones; I turned the cuffs and collars of Trevor鈥檚 shirts and darned the socks, I was kept busy.
Then came VE Day on the 8th May 1945. Everyone came home from work, it was so noisy and exciting, trains blew their whistles as they went along, factory hooters were blasting away, there were bands playing, street parties everywhere. We had trestle tables and chairs down the middle of the street, Union Jack flags across the street from bedroom windows, a piano to sing and dance to, we had plenty of food and drink, we had a fantastic time. Of course, we thought of the people whose loved ones were not coming home.鈥�

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