大象传媒

On Monday September 4th 1939 along with my sister I was evacuated from a school in London to a village in Norfolk. Jean was 12 and I was 9. All the children carried gasmasks, they were in cardboard boxes with a string loop to go over the shoulder, later on most were covered in some sort of waterproof material and had a stronger carrying strap. We all had pieces of card with our names on tied to our clothing. We must have had some sort of lunch pack given to us,but all I remember is seeing dry curled up sandwiches being thrown away,perhaps we were too excited or frightened to eat. When we arrived at the village we were lined up in the square and the local people chose the children that they wanted, we were picked with two girls. All the evacuees were taught in a large hall. I think that there were two or possibly three teachers for a very large group of children ranging from infants to 13 year olds. It must have been a nightmare for the staff, I don't remember books or actualy learning anything. The village children went to their own school so we only saw them in our free time. We all got on very well, in fact my best friends were local boys. Our Dad worked in the Royal Arsenal Woolwich and could only visit occasionally, but Mum came up every month. Food was still plentiful and our parents frequently sent us parcels which the lady of the house stored away, perhaps she knew the war would be a long one. The two girls billetted with us didn't get visitors or parcels and were sent to another family, they were so happy there that I think we wished that the parcels would stop coming. After about 10 months it seemed safe and we went home. Then of course the Blitz' started.
Later in the war my Parents and Sister were killed, but that's another story.

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