大象传媒

This story was contributed to the People's War site by a volunteer from oxford on behalf of Olive and has been added to the site with her permission Olive fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I think it was in 1944. I was stationed at Huntingdon as a WAAF corporal in the Signals. Those days I would always try to hitch hike home to Felixstowe. My father did not mind this if it was during the day but did not want me to come home on my own at night, then he was very angry with me. If I came at night I would throw a stone up to the window for them to let me in. Once I was stuck in a pub waiting for hours for some Americans to pick me up. In the end I had to get myself to Bury St Edmunds and catch the first train the following morning to Felixstowe, arriving at 6 a.m.
One day I was hitch hiking again, in uniform, wearing my 鈥渢wilight鈥� knickers. We had two sets of knickers, the grey ones were called 鈥渢wilight鈥� and the navy ones that we used for PE were called 鈥渂lackouts鈥� Our pyjamas were called 鈥減assionkillers鈥�. Anyway, as I stood by the wayside at Newmarket suddenly the elastic of my knickers broke and started to slide down. Elastic was not as good then as it is nowadays and this happened occasionally. But a camp of soldiers was nearby and I was really worried lest they see me with my knickers falling off. Luckily they were foreign soldiers, I believe they were Czech. I did not understand a single word they were saying but there was plenty of laughter. I stepped out of my knickers and stuffed them into my pocket. I was more than glad when someone picked me up to avoid their glazes and enjoyment.

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