大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sue Smith on behalf of Betty Bennett and has been added to the site with her permission. Betty fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.
The war started when I was eight years old and living in Oxford Road, Southsea. I attended Albert Road school and I remember we had a large bath of stagnant water in the classroom ready to extinguish any fires from the bombing. I recall having to go to a garage at the end of the road to have my gas mask fitted and disliking it intensely. One Saturday my mother and grandmother had gone shopping and my father was asleep, when there was a direct hit on a house two roads away. A large piece of concrete came through our roof but luckily my father and I was unhurt. Often we went to the communal shelter at the end of the road and I remember a man would play the mouth organ and get us singing to keep our spirits up. Our school was used to shelter people who had lost their homes so sometimes we had to double up the classes and share three to a desk, but in spite of this our education did not suffer and I later went on to The Portsmouth Municipal College in Stamshaw. We got used to the shortages of clothes and food but two occasions remain in my memory. We rarely had new clothes but one day a relative went to London and brought back a lacy blouse for my birthday. I had never seen anything so beautiful and treasured it for a long time. The second occasion was also a birthday party. The food was very sparse, just a few paste sandwiches and a little cake but then a great treat was brought in 鈥� bananas and custard. I had friends whose fathers were in the forces and occasionally they would bring home a banana so naturally I thought this was the source, but when I spoke to the girl鈥檚 mother she said, 鈥淒oesn鈥檛 your Mum do the same, boil up parsnips and add some banana flavouring?鈥� I was so disappointed and had to wait some time for my first taste of a real banana. Outings were rare but on hot days we would go to Southsea sea front and pack together with hundreds of others on the small patch of beach between South Parade Pier and Southsea Castle which was not sealed off, just enjoying being in the open air, and of course on VE day we had a street party complete with our piano which was dragged out on to the pavement. The times were hard but we felt much more of a community spirit in those days.

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