大象传媒

Typed by Chris Green
These are some of my husbands' recollections of the time he spent in Kings Heath after his family were bombed out of the Nechells area in the Inner City.

Dances in the Park
In the centre of Kings Heath Park stood a large marquee, and for a small sum of money, you could see a different variety show each week.These shows were a morale booster for the civilian population and the Entertainers were from many nations - free french;free polish and so on.Lots were home-grown or from the Commonwealth too.
Sometimes it might be a dance band. They always played "In the Mood" and "Moonlight Serenade." It was great fun but not many male partners were available so my mom always had to dance with one of the other moms.My dad never came as he worked long hours(in a munitions factory) and would grab a beer on the way home.
Tea and rock cakes were on sale - courtesy of the WVS.Genuine rocks were used.
Military transports
Military transport was everywhere, especially after the Americans came into the war. During the months before D-Day convoys of U.S.tanks,,trucks and half-tracks used to pass our front door on the way to to the coast to make redy for the invasion of Europe.The soldiers looked very young.Some threw gum or chocolate.All seemed to have an endless supply of cigarettes. Us kids used to throng the streets,cheering and waving. Not so the adults though as most of them believed them to be lousy soldiers!
Train loads of wounded soldiers used to pass through kings heath station.We had some friends who used to live in the old station pub right down on the platform of the old disused railway.When we were there, we used to go out into their back garden amongst the cabbages and spuds and wave to the red cross trains as they sped through to god knows where.
All the men wore white shirts and red ties to denote that they were officially wounded.When these,or any other train went through all the lights and the radio went off in the old pub and we would cheer when they came back on again.
It was just like a popular song of the day"the railroad runs through the middle of the house"
Prisoners of War
On a hill overlooking Kings Heath stood a Prisoner of war camp. Today, the view from there is of housing estates, but then it was very different. you could see fields and shrub land criss-crossed by a brook,a railway and a canal.
Sometimes during the year, we would run waist-high through the fields of daisies.Birds and frogs used to jump or fly clear at our approach.Close by used to be about half a dozen chestnut horses, grazing and flicking flies with their tails. We would always try to catch one of them but never did - running and rolling in the dust of summer,calling and falling in the sheer joy of being alive and still free.
From behind the walls of the camp, the German and italian prisoners watched us at play, probably thinking of other fields and children far away. Just like the prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars, they carved their toys and trinkets and waited to go home. But like those French captives,some would never return but would stayon forever.
After italy surrendered to the Allied Forces, some of their prisoners were allowed out for a few hours during the evening and could be seen promenading up and down in the High Street.Down in the Park,some girls were already fraternizing with them.
Meanwhile, the germans carried on doing their street-cleaning duties and light farm work like potato picking and haymaking in the City fields. We still had some then!
But for us kids, covered in dandelion parachutes and red blotches from stingers,mingled with the green of the dock leaves, it was home for tea and ITMA

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