大象传媒

This is the sixth of Brian Cable鈥檚 鈥楥HILDHOOD MEMORIES FROM RAYLEIGH IN ESSEX鈥�.

These memories were written by Brian, edited by Jo Taylor of the Holmewood and Heath CAP team, and added to the site with the author鈥檚 permission.

HOME LIFE

Chickens
During the war we kept between 200 and 250 chickens and they made our food situation a lot better than most. They kept us supplied with plenty of eggs and we had to have people rationed with us to get poultry meal and corn for them. Occasionally we had a chicken dinner and eggs could be swapped for other commodities that were in short supply.
I got to be very fond of chickens (and I still am) and it was my job to feed them before I went to school in the morning, and again when I came home in the afternoon. They knew my footsteps and eagerly ran to the wire to greet me.
During a heavy raid, the bombs and anti-aircraft fire would unsettle them, so often I used to go up with my father and talk to them and try to settle them down. I think it usually used to work.
One morning, however, I went up as usual to let them out. I let down the ramp from their door, and instead of them all rushing down in to the open air - nothing happened! I peered inside and there they all were huddled together in rows on their perches, shivering and refusing to move.
I went inside and tried to coax them out, but all to no avail. I noticed that the straw on the ground was covered in flakes of whitewash and there was a terrific bow in the roof. My father had now arrived and on learning the situation got a small ladder and we went up on the roof.
Laying on the roof was a 6ft concrete post with a huge ball of concrete on the bottom.
It was some time before the poor things got over the shock and back into their regular laying pattern. It was also some time before we found out where the post had come from. It came from well over a mile away; a land mine had landed in a small plot of land which was surrounded by this type of fencing. This particular post had stood on its own, and not yet connected by chain link fencing which had held the others back. It must have been an awful shock for the hens who must have thought that the end of the world had arrived!

When I see the variety of sweets there are in the shops today I think back to the meagre ration we were allowed. If we got any extra it was only due to the generosity of adults letting us have some of their coupons. We had money in our pockets, there were many ways of earning it, but we had virtually nothing to spend it on. I used to deliver eggs for my parents, help out in a wood yard next door and gather rose hips etc. Money was not the problem there was just nothing in the shops to buy. When out shopping with my mother we would see a queue and she would say, 鈥淕et in that!鈥� often not knowing what it was for, while she went off to do some other shopping. One day while in Woolworths in Southend with my father we saw a huge queue and I managed to sneak in near the front. When I got there it was for No 8 batteries which were in great demand and very short supply. I managed to get two, but the problem was we had no torch they fitted, so my father had to go and buy one.
Torches were very necessary in the black out, but you had to be very careful how you used them. Many were fined for shining them out of doors, and you were supposed to cover the lens with a couple of layers of tissue paper.
Foodstuffs were very scarce and my mother had to save up the ingredients for me to have a birthday cake for quite a long time. When it was finally made she left it to cool on the kitchen table, and while she went out there was an air raid. The kitchen window was shattered and shards of glass were peppered into the cake. Of course it was quite uneatable and had to be thrown to the birds.

Dad鈥檚 Army
I have quite a few copies of Dad鈥檚 Army, and whenever I watch them it reminds me of the Home Guard in my hometown. A couple of them had grey beards and were locally known as Britain鈥檚 鈥榣ast hope鈥�. A lot of them we knew well, and they sometimes put up roadblocks and checked people鈥檚 identity cards.
One Sunday morning my Mother and I were going to church and we met one of these roadblocks. One of them looked at my Mother鈥檚 identity card and asked her name and age, she was furious,
鈥淵ou very well know my name,鈥� she burst, 鈥淲e have known each other all our lives, and I am certainly not telling you my age, you can arrest me if you like!鈥� The poor man quickly glanced across at his sergeant who was looking elsewhere, gave her back her identity card, and let us through.
Like the wardens I have mentioned elsewhere, some of them let a little bit of power really go to their heads!

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