大象传媒

鈥淭his story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anita Howard (nee Sackett) from the Essex Action Desk CVS on behalf of herself and has been added to the site with her permission. Anita Sackett fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

I was born in September 1940 so my memories are few but I do remember my father Ron Sackett going to the door and looking up at the sky. My mother shouted,
鈥淪hut the door Ron, they鈥檒l see the light,鈥� but dad replied,
鈥淚t鈥檚 O.K. Ivy, it鈥檚 one of ours.鈥�
He worked as a Clerk of Works for the Air Ministry at a nearby aerodrome, Little Staughton, Beds. where he helped to keep the aerodrome working for the British and American bombers in order to take off and land. So he knew all the engine sounds.

We didn鈥檛 have many new toys as they were difficult to get hold of, in stead they were second hand or hand made.
I had a large wooden train engine large enough to sit in. Scarlet, red and black with a shiny bell. I also had a second hand bottle green tricycle. Books were made from very thick paper and my Mickey Mouse annual was illustrated only in black and white. Other characters in the annual were Hortense, a horse and Claribell a cow, I think!

Food was rationed as was furniture and clothes. Everyone was issued with a ration book. Adults had beige books, juniors (me) bluebooks and my sister, a baby had a green book. In side were little coupons like tickets which the shopkeeper cut out when you bought something. I remember the shopkeepers having scissors dangling from their waists on a piece of string.

My mother often altered clothes or used the material to make other garments for her or me. I remember wearing a siren suit which was an all in one suit made of a woollen cloth which could be rather scratchy on my skin although it was warm to wear in those cold winters. Children also wore leggings made out of coat material. They usually matched the coat and did up all the way down the sides of the legs with buttons and had elastic under the foot. They were a devil to get on and off. My mother was not pleased when I wanted to go to the lavatory. We also wore matching pixie hoods.

My father was not a gardener but like many people he did his bit for the war effort. We had a council house with a large end plot so he grew potatoes, greens, carrots, onions and tomatoes. I can still smell those home grown tomatoes!
Very often people would swap butter for eggs or vegetables and even saved coupons for special events such as a wedding. Butter, sugar, dried fruit and eggs were needed for these cakes

My Grandma Sackett didn鈥檛 always do as she was told. One day she was caught shining her torch into she sky so she was fined. Batteries and torches were difficult to buy as there was a shortage of them All windows had to be covered with blackout curtaining or be painted black. Even the bus windows were blacked out.

Aunt Madeleine鈥檚 husband Cyril, remembers going to the corner shop during the blackout. It was so dark he bumped into someone on the way and when he arrived home he found a man鈥檚 pipe in his pocket.

Many London children were evacuated to the country from large cities away from the bombing. My mother was already looking after her sick father and me as a toddler but was asked to take an evacuee. She requested a girl but she was given a boy from the King鈥檚 Cross area in London. Albert Watts was a nice boy she said but caused a lot of extra work. Like many evacuees he wet the bed so there were always extra sheets to wash every day. He did a paper round to earn extra money but wore big holes in his socks every day. Mum would mend them at night but the next day there were fresh holes. She let him keep his paper round money and when he left he gave her a present. Unfortunately the next lady he stayed with kept all his earnings.
Grandma Sackett also had an evacuee, a lady called Miriam and her baby from London.

I lived on a council estate on the edge of Rushden near Irchester, Northants. Opposite our road was Coronation Avenue and beyond that were some open fields. There we flew kites. Once my dad made me a red and black kite but it was too heavy to fly. Sometimes the older children would take me for walks or we would go to the spinney and pick primroses and bluebells or go frog and newt collecting with jam jars. All forbidden now. Or they would walk up to the Nissen huts in Irchester Road where the American forces were stationed and plead for chocolate and real Yankee strips of chewing gum. Now that was exciting as sweets and chocolates were very scarce.

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