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I was born very shortly after the war started but my memories very strong even though I was a very small child. I particularly remember the Morrison table we had at home because it was piled with eiderdowns and pillows probably at all times. This was because I lived in an area subjected to bombing raids at all times. It was a small town called Cleethorpes which adjoins Grimsby just across the Humber from Hull. During that time we would all sleep either under or on top of the table. I would sleep under the table with my siblings and my mother and father would sleep on the top. When the air raid siren sounded my parents would join us under the table for safety.

Also remember my father taking me in 1942 to see Cleethorpes pier in flames. What a site that was — very distressing.

I was one of 3 children and whenever my mother was able to get oranges she would divide one into 3 just for us, my mother never had any fruit. We obviously saw oranges during the war but in would be 1947 or so after I’d started school that I saw my first banana. I was at junior school I when I saw my first banana we didn’t know what to do with it, the teacher had to show us how to peel this thing!

Eggs were in short supply and were rationed but somehow my mother managed to get plenty. Goodness knows how! She was from a farming family in Lincolnshire so maybe she had some connection to be able to get fresh eggs. The back pantry was absolutely full of eggs in isinglass which is some sort of cold slippery preservative substance. The eggs were in a big crock full of this very, very cold slimy stuff and I used to loathe being told to go and get an egg out of the isinglass! No fridges in those days!

I remember sweet coupons which went on after the war, almost until I went to grammar school, a long, long time after the end of the war, into the 1950’s. The sweet ration was a quarter of sweets a month. My mother kept the sweets in a dish on the dining room table and she would be very angry if one of us was ever tempted and stole a sweet. From the corner shop we used to get a sort of liquorice stick, just like a twig that we chewed on. No wonder my generation had such good teeth, we didn’t have much sugar!

After the war I remember a bomb being removed from the back yard which was a concreted area of our house before our garden started. A bomb had hit the house next door and created this enormous crater. That would be about 1946 when I was about 5 or so, to me it looked like a huge giant jam jar.

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