大象传媒

Our lives were very different then. There was no television, only a wireless shared by all the family.

Our heating was one coal fire in the kitchen for the whole house. No carpets on the floor, just cold lino. There was no such thing as central heating then.

We slept three in a bed to keep warm and there were six children in our family. Four boys and two girls. I was the third child.

We only went to school for half a day because the school had been taken over by the army and used as a barracks for the soldiers.

When the siren sounded every one went to the shelters which were either in your own back yard or in the street. Which one you went to depended on where you where when the siren went off.

We had our own shelter in the yard. Every night when the siren went off we put on our nighties and pyjamas and slept on the bunks in the shelter our father had made for us. Not that we slept much, the sound of the bombs kept us awake.

We would listen out for the German planes and we knew it was them because they souded different to our own planes.
The bombs would whistle down and then the whistling would stop for a few seconds. We would count 1,2,3 until we heard the explosion. This would indicate how far away the bombs were.

The next morning we would go and see the houses that had been bombed and lots of people were killed.

In the centre of Liverpool nealy all the big shops were flattened. Lewis`s store was a burnt out shell for a long time and the streets were strewn with debris.

Everyone walked to work or school. There was no transport and the tram cars could not operate. the only people who had cars were doctors or posh people. I was 17 when i had my first ride in a car and life was alot simpler then.

Our only recreation was the cinema and there were plenty of those within walking distance of our house. Some of them still exist today, but they are now bingo halls.

We took our gas masks with us everywhere we went. They were in a brown square box. A long piece of string threaded through a small holes in the side enabled you to wear it over your shoulder. It was compulsory to have it with you at all times in case the Germans dropped gas bombs. They were made of rubber and very smelly when you put them over your face. We were never bombed with gas so I never had to wear mine which was a good job because i kept losing mine.

Lots of dads went off to fight in the war. Mine did`nt because he was to old(over 40). He worked in the power house at Clarence dock which made electricity. He worked very long hours ans sometimes we would know if he was coming home.

One morning when he should have finished work at 10 the previous night he did`nt arrive home until 5am. He walked From Clarence dock to The Dingle, which is where we lived then.

While taking a short cut through Bold Street we came across a number of bodies blown to pieces by the bombs. Arms, legs and heads were scattered all over the place. My father thought he had better get hepl to pick up the remains before anyone else saw them.

After a time he found an air raid warden walking towards him from a side street. He called over and asked him to help him clear aways the bodies. On closer inspection id dawned on them that they were not bodies, but dummies that had been blasted through shop windows and out onto the street. Well they both sat down on the pavement and had a good laugh. My dad told the tale for years after.

there was another time when he and his mate were walking home from work and the bombs were falling close by. they went into an air raid shelter on the Dock Rd which was full of water which went up to their knees. His mate nudged him and said "look up. Bobmers moon tonight". There was no roof on the shelter.

I was eventually evacuated with my brothers and sisters but my mum missed us so much she brought us home. She said if we are going to be killed lets all go together.

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