大象传媒

September 1941

It had been a fine summer in South Ferriby. Seemingly the sun had shone every day and every morning my aunt June had knocked on the front door of Mrs Kirkby's cottage to collect me. Off we would run up the lane and into the cool dark woods, playing innocently at hide and seek. Then through the fields to laze on our own private beach as we had become captivated with the shimmering white pebbles of Chequers. We could also watch the various ships sailing up and down the River Humber.

In the middle of the River there was the mysterious Reeds Island on which the villagers said no one lived permanently. About midday on that warm morning, Mrs Kirkby called me into the cottage and told me to hurry over to Elsie's house and I was told to be certain to tell Elsie to bring her black bag. Elsie was the local midwife and she duly arrived.

I was dispatched into the garden where from and through the open bedroom window I could hear mum crying out and Elsie advising her to "Push Kitty Push!".

After about an hour I heard the sound of a baby crying, minutes later I was proudly shown my new brother Colin Anthony. Two days later I stood at the bus stop in the village waiting for my dad to arrive for his weekly visit. Excitedly I pulled him along the lane to the cottage where he was introduced to his new son.

Mrs Kirkby had produced a battered old pram from somewhere in the cottage and now and again, June and I were allowed to push Colin around the village where everyone made a big fuss of the new baby.

One special delight to me was the opportunity to poke around through Mrs Kirkby's cupboards when she was out at the shops. I knew where Mrs Kirkby kept the key to one special cupboard so, one morning, I borrowed the key and unlocked the cupboard. As the cupboard door opened, out onto the floor dropped tablet after tablet of soap and numerous other wartime scarcities, truly Mrs Kirkby had, for many months, turned herself into a Black market Mother Hubbard!

Somehow she soon found out that that morning I had been rifling into her secret stores and she angrily confronted me in front of mum, who was holding Colin in her arms in tears. Seeing that my mother was so upset I summoned up all my courage and shouted back at Mrs Kirkby "Don't you dare shout at my Mum and frighten my brother!".

Soon we all calmed down, Mrs Kirkby lit another cigarette and I went for a walk down to Chequers, and wartime evacuation in South Ferriby returned to something approaching normality.
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