大象传媒

I was born in 1941 and lived in Lye.

I remember queuing for hours on end. One day I queued outside a big empty shop, I was not told what we were queuing for. When I got to the head of the queue I was given this crock doll. She was about 9 inches in length. I named her Molly and I still have her at home today. She sits in her own cot. When I broke her head, she had to be taped up with tape from the Ovaltine tin. The tape was just like today鈥檚 Elastoplast.

I remember standing in a queue for one orange. Only children were given them. Mum and I cut up the orange very carefully into boat shapes and I ate a piece each day.

One day my Dad came home with a banana. He had been given it by a sailor, who was coming home on leave, The banana had turned black and horrible, I wouldn鈥檛 go anywhere near it. Eventually it was peeled to show me it was O.K.
I ate some of it, and liked it.

Dad worked for British Rail in the Oldbury area. He supervised the loading of munitions onto trains. It was done at night in the undercover of darkness. It was a protected job and therefore he was able to stay at home and excused the army.

Mum鈥檚 next-door neighbour had a son in the army. I was very fond of her and called her Nan. I was with her all the time. I was her shadow. She was 105 when she died. Nan鈥檚 son was a red beret paratrooper and I remember how he sent a parcel of muddy, bloody clothes for my Mum to wash and not to let Nan (his Mum), see them. I never did understand why.

I remember being taken to visit the wife of a man who had been killed. I remember lots of people crying. The wife was pregnant and I remember Nan saying how it would never know its father.

I remember walking past the early warning siren in Lye High Street and hoping it wouldn鈥檛 go off whilst I was walking past. It was a big ugly thing. I only ever heard it when it was being tested.

I remember how happy people were at the parties as war finished. Some soldiers threw my Mum backwards and forwards over a fence from one group of soldiers to another. I thought it was very funny.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jill Taylor for the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Marie Mobberley and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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