大象传媒

I;m a pupil from Heaton Manor Comprehensive School, Newcastle Upon-Tyne, entering Diana Simon's story onto the website, and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use.

I was born in 1942 so knew nothing but war until I was three years old. I do have some memories from that time, but very much seen through the eyes of a small child.

I remember being allowed to go down the shop alone- about 10 houses away - in Kitchener Avenue to collect the bread. Bread, along with other food stuffs was rationed, and I had to take with me the precious Ration Book. We used to have a large white loaf every day - not sliced,of course, (no such thing) and I used to lug this back to No. 56 along with the Ration Book. It was not unusual to pull the corner of the loaf off and eat it on my journey home.

I think I'm correct in saying that all households had to be registered with a grocer's shop, butcher and so on so that rationing was 'fair'. You could only buy from the shop where you were registered and onlu if you had enough coupons to cover the number of points. The Ration Book was more sacred than the Bible in most households at that time. Food was awarded a 'point' system and the most FAQ around in those days was 'How many points is it?' when a new purchase was under discussion. Clothes, fabrics and furniture were all rationed in the same way. Furniture bore something called a utility mark which seemed to be the lowest grade of stuff available.

There were no sweets, bananas, ice cream etc. available, but as we'd never had them, they weren't missed. I do remember my first ice cream. Dad came home with what was known as a family brick. A small block of ice cream weighing about half a kilo. It was unthinkable that we should have it all to ourselves and I think about eight children in the end had a taste of that ice cream. It was the talk of the road!

Rationing of all goods led to the handing down of everything in families and between neighbours. No-one felt the slightest bit put out wearing second or third hand garments and it was known that something you coveted would probably one day come your way. I remember the small two wheeler bike in particular. I don't know how many children it served during it's time. It was the perfect stepping stone from the trike to the standard size two wheeler. Wooden blocks would be put on the pedals and the saddle ratcheted down to the lowest point. Sometimes, a father would give it a coat of paint whilst it was in the family ownership. As the current owner grew, the blocks would be removed, the saddle cranked up again and another 18 months use until the next child in the road had a turn.

A few children had fathers away in the armed forces. One, we knew, was already dead in Burma railway. None of this appeared to affect the well being of the children. It was just accepted. I can't speak for the adults of the time.

We didn't have a lot of bombing in Gloucester city. One fell on Rikenel, close to the park. I did see bombed houses in other places and it was always strange to see in some cases the way the stair case would still be there, clinging to the exposed inside walls with the wallpaper peeling down and hanging off. Again, these former homes, blown apart with possible loss of life, seem to be accepted by the children as just part of the everyday landscape with no thought to horror behind it all.

Schools used to stay open longer so that children who had a mother working on war work could be looked afetr. Not many of the mothers near us worked outside the home. We played outside all day in the road. No vehicles as there was no fuel. We played French cricket, off ground tag, marbles etc. but there wasn't the dominance of football like today. The vegetable man came round twice a week with his goods on a cart pulled by an old brown horse. The dust carts were also pulled by horses, but great shire horses. Everyone had to recycle in those days, but it was called salvage then. Rags, old saucepans, papers went out once a week. Every road had a couple of pig bins into which vegetables scrapings had to put to feed pigs. Nothing was wasted. To this day, i cannot throw away bits of string, paper bags etc.

Uniforms of all sorts dominated the streets. In retrospect, there was a tremendous absence of colour, but as it was all we knew, it was not commented on. It wasn't until the 1960s that colour reakky took off in the UK.

The 9 o'clock news on radio was a huge focal point of the day and newspapers (reduced in size due to shortages) were a necessary sources of information. People were always hungry for news of events overseas.

We had the black out, too. This meant that no household was allowed to show a chink of light from windows after darkness. Failure to comply was heavy fined. We had thick black curtaining at all of the windows, really dreary. I can reme,ber the musty smell of them now. Motor vehicles also had to restrict lights and had a sort of hood over the lens to prevent light beaming up. All this to prevent enemy bombers pinpointing areas of inhabitation. Trees growing along the pavements had a white band painting round the trunk so we didn't bump into them and the few vehicles there were also had white bands to help identification.

Coal was in short supply and the houe was always cold. We didn't need a fridge, which was just as well as there were few domestic refrigerators or any other household appliances available. The electricity supply wasn't that reliable either and candles were a household necessity and not the romantic option they are today.

I was frightened of fire engines (I thought they caused fires) aeroplanes and loud noises and I still am!

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