大象传媒

The following is a group of poems about William James Fox, my father, in the last war. I took down his words verbatim and then structured them. They are part of a longer poem about life before and after the war in our area of Bristol.

Barry Fox, Nova Scotia, Canada

Titles
Ted Moreton and the Beer
Shock Asthma
When War Broke Out
When I Went to Join Up First
Trying to Sign Up the Second Time
Petherton Gardens: After an Air Raid
Bombing the BAC
Overhead Bombers in East Street, Bedminster
Young Drunk Pilots at the City鈥檚 Ground
We Were Quite Well Off

Where was there beer?
Ted Moreton and the Beer

When there was a shortage of beer,
That was when I was living in Broad Walk,
Then. About six months.
He'd go out by the gate, lean on the gate
And then might come back in and start to put on his boots.
Nan Moreton had polished them for him.
Kept them by the fireplace.
She always helped him put them on.
Anyway. He鈥檇 start putting his boots on.
I' d say 鈥淲here you going then, Ted?鈥�
He鈥檇 wave his hand in the air, not saying anything.
That鈥檚 it! that's him!
I had to wait then to hear what he had to say.
I said 鈥淭here isn鈥檛 any beer about.鈥�
鈥淭he Talbot.鈥�
I said 鈥淗ow d鈥檡ou know?鈥�

He'd get out there and he鈥檇 see certain blokes
That liked a drink, and if he saw them going one way
That pub was open
And if they went the other way
That was 鈥淭he Friendship.鈥�

He certainly was an amazing bloke, mind you.
He was a boozer.
If Bill Taylor was alive he鈥檇 tell you a thing.
He鈥檇 go in the pub; perhaps there might be three of us--
Bill Taylor, myself, and Ted
And he鈥檇 go up to the counter
And he would (tap, tap) one finger out (tap tap)
And stand.
He didn鈥檛 say anything, just draw attention.

Was there such a thing as 鈥淪hock Asthma?

Shock Asthma

It was presumed Nan Moreton had asthma, shock asthma, in the war.
Now whether there's any truth in that I just don't know.
I mean, the doctors can say that,
They can say 鈥渟he've got asthma鈥� so much
鈥淗ow she get that?鈥�
鈥淪hock, war, and all that鈥�

At the time of air raids
She used to crawl under anything out the way,
She was terrified

Go down the air raid shelter when the bombs started then
Crawl under a chair or anything



When War Broke Out

Nan Fox and my dad, Mum and I,
We were at Southsea.

They鈥檇 gone down there for the week
And we went down to see them for the day.

Every body was down there.
But the papers were coming out,
Then everybody wanted to get back home
As quick as they could.

We chased back, Mum and I.

It was quite a pleasant trip actually.
But anyway we rushed,
And got home quickly
Because there was talk of planes coming over
And bombing
And parachute troops
And all that.

Everybody had a thought in their minds
Of what might happen

As far as I was concerned, myself,
I don鈥檛 know why it was,
But I was never worried about it,
Wasn't concerned about it, ever.
I had a sort of feeling that it couldn't happen.
I think Churchill built up a wonderful feeling
That we鈥檇 never be conquered.

When I Went to Join Up First

When I went to join up,
Which you had to,
Not join up actually,
You had to go to the
It was the labour exchange.
Put your name down for what force you wanted to go in
And my school pal, school mate, Bert Cochrane
He said to me, 鈥淛oin the Navy, Bill.鈥�
He said, 鈥淟et鈥檚 join the Navy together.鈥�
We鈥檇 still kept friendly after we left school.
He worked in Marden鈥檚 and I was out the BAC..
And I said 鈥淯h, no. I don鈥檛 fancy the Navy.鈥�
鈥淣o, I said, 鈥淚鈥檒l join the Air Force.鈥�

Well, you had to get in different queues.
If you wanted to join the air force you got in one queue.
They had it up there, hanging on the wall:
鈥淣avy鈥� or whatever it was you wanted to join.
We were in the next line to each other.
I was in one and we were sort of going down
Till we got to the desk
And he was calling over to me
(Well he wasn鈥檛 the only one
And other blokes were trying to talk to other blokes.)
And I said, 鈥淣o, I don鈥檛 fancy the Navy.鈥�

Any way I joined,
I put my name down,
That鈥檚 all you had to do. And it was there.
That was why later in the war
I went down to the Air Force
To see if I could join
More or less, knowing very well I鈥檇 applied,
Thinking they鈥檇 have that record.

Any way, old Bert,
He went in the Navy
And he went down with the Repulse.
That was the Japs put that one down.
I don鈥檛 think there was anybody saved out of that one.
The lot went down.
The Repulse.

Trying to Sign Up the Second Time

I went down to Stokes Croft in the car.
I鈥檇 got really fed up working out at the BAC
On the machines. I thought
鈥淚 can be doing better than this.鈥�
I went down Stokes Croft
And tried to sign up for the Air Force.

It was on one lunch time.
I had the car at the time.
I went in and saw the bloke.
I said, 鈥淚鈥檇 like to join the Air Force.鈥�

鈥淥K .鈥� He asked a lot of questions.
Took all the writing down.
鈥淲here d鈥檡ou work.鈥�
I said 鈥淏AC.鈥�
鈥淲hat d鈥檡ou do.鈥�
I told him.
鈥淥K, You鈥檒l hear from us.鈥�
Never did.

When I mentioned the BAC
Wouldn鈥檛 let me go.
I was doing a job there.
I mean, they couldn鈥檛 take everybody.

Yeah, I did.

I never said anything to mum.
Probably I knew very well they wouldn鈥檛 let me out.
Just satisfied myself.

Air Raids
Petherton Gardens: After an Air Raid

At 4 o鈥檆lock in the morning, on one particular time, there was a very very bad bombing session that was all over Bristol generally. It went on all night. When the all-clear went we came out of the shelter. I remember walking down our road and into the field.

I was amazed to see cows led down in the field.
Some were stood up; they were all
Motionless. They were just like you might see
Carved out of something. You could have gone
Right up to them. They hadn't moved and they
Didn鈥檛 move then. The first one to move--
I always remember this because
Arthur Nightingale, he was with me,
And we were talking about it--
And I think it was somewhere
Around about three or four hours after
Before the first cow moved.

Further down in the field we could see
Something we thought was a cow.
It was a horse.
He'd come down from Dundry, all across the fields
Jumping barbed wire fences.
He was ripped to blazes
Where he hadn't really jumped them.
He鈥檇 gone through them,
If you know what I mean.
So terrified.

Finished up
Flat out on the field.
To be quite honest there was a few dogs down there,
Biting away at it.
That's just how it was.

And of course a huge great crater was out there
And Nick from just up the road
Used to go over swimming in it.



Bombing the BAC

You didn鈥檛 need permission not to turn up
If there鈥檇 been bombing.
At the time they were bombing Bristol
They鈥檇 be bombing the BAC.
One time I was home at night
They bombed the BAC.
Well, I say bombed it;
They bombed and some of the glass
Or whatever was on the roofs
Was broken. You couldn鈥檛 work in there
With light showing out through.

But anyway
The thing is
If they were bombing here
They were bombing the aerodrome at the BAC.
So there were problems all the way round.

When the war started
They gave us a sheet that said
If there was a raid
We had to hide in the hedges
In the fields outside.


Overhead Bombers in East Street, Bedminster

I happened to be in East Street at the time.
Everybody wondered, what鈥檚 all the noise?
About 50 or 60 planes, Germans,
And our air force met them.

Their bombers, and that, were right up
And our planes, Spitfires,
Were right at the bottom

And everybody was looking up!
Watching it!

There was our planes going up
And underneath them;
Firing at them,
And going up higher,
And then coming back down.

Brought a hell of a lot down.
Hell of a lot.

The bombers came over with fighters to protect them.
The bombers flew on; the fighter planes fought our planes
To stop us from getting at their bombers.
If their planes were put out of action
We had a go at their bombers.

God, nobody cheered
They were doing it in their pants.
Everybody was dead scared.
I mean, naturally.

I actually watched them.
They鈥檇 go up in the distance
And then you might see an odd one
With flames coming out of it.

They didn鈥檛 come down in Bristol.
They came down outside of Bath,
Somewhere like that.




What Ruined my Sight

What ruined my sight a lot
Was the fact that when I worked,
Working at the BAC
I worked a tool and cutter grinder
Which sparks kept coming up from.
You were supposed to wear glasses
But sometimes, if you鈥檙e doing a tool,
Grinding a very small tool, mind you,
You wouldn鈥檛 know the spark was coming up.
I sometimes used to drop my glasses.

The ones that were in that tin, out in the shed
Those were the ones I used to use.
The point is,
To get my vision better because they鈥檇 dirty up
I used to drop my glasses a bit to look.
Of course, in flew a spark.
Up the eye hospital.

I was up the eye hospital
Which is still at the same place more or less
If you went up there at all they had a book on you
Mine was about three pages
Printed and all that
What they鈥檇 done to your eye the other times
And I had pages
Pages.

I got told about it.
They said, 鈥淵ou should wear the glasses.鈥�
I said, 鈥淲ell, I do but I dropped them just for a few moments.鈥�

Eye shades, I had loads of those about.
Always wearing them.

What happens then is
You get an ulcerated eye.
Still.
I鈥檓 still here.

Young Drunk Pilots at the City鈥檚 Ground

Young pilots, young lads 18, 19 years of age.

I remember going,
(Of course the football went on in the war.
They had football teams.
The City and all the others,
Things were still going on then.)
I remember going down to the City ground
And they weren鈥檛 too far away.

It was Third Division South
I used to go down there
And a couple of these young lads.
I knew one of them,
At Queen Elizabeth,[4]
The ones who wore the yellow stockings
In their school uniform.
I remember him because he lived
Up by Bert Cochrane.

Him and a couple of others,
They only looked boys.
I mean I was a man up to them
To look at.

Drunk.
They were going into the City ground.
Whether any of them knew anything about football,
They just carried on.

These were the pilots.
Yes, never came back.
No.

Shame really.
I mean that鈥檚, that was what they were doing.
They were going in it,
Fighting mad, sort of.

But there, some of them did come back.



We Were Quite Well Off

You asked me if I thought,
鈥淭here鈥檚 a war going on I don鈥檛 know
If I could bring a child into the world.鈥�

No, no; there was no question about it.
You got about life the same way.
I mean over in this country
Apart from going short of a few things,
We had rationing, and all that,
Bombs dropping and all that
We were very fortunate, very fortunate.
If you know what I mean
We knew nothing about the war.
To be honest about it.
Although we had a rough time.
But you could always think of people in France
Which was in Europe
Put it that way,
That were open targets for the Germans
But they couldn't get anywhere near us, though.
So we were quite well off.

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