大象传媒

During the war my family lived in London. My father travelled installing air raid warning systems in factories all over the country. On one job he met a factory man who invited us to stay with his family in Bristol, so we moved from London and stayed there for a while away from the heavy bombing of home.

During the time we stayed there the two families became close friends, and that friendship remained even after we moved back to London and even after the war had ended. This was no doubt helped later on by a happy arrangement that my mother and the mother of the Bristol family dreamt up. She became the head-cook at the Co-Op butter factory, whilst my mother was able to get her hands on nylon stockings. The rationing continued after the war, so one week my mother would send up a package of stockings, and the next we鈥檇 receive a package of our own. I remember one morning answering the door to the postman and seeing him standing there with a soggy but so very very welcome package in his hands, two pounds of butter for us from the factory. I remember looking forward to it every other week, it was a big treat compared to the awful ration margarine we had otherwise! My granddad actually owned a general store during the war, but he鈥檇 never let us have any more than our ration books would allow! You learnt to appreciate things so much more during that time, I suppose these days accepting a soggy package of butter every two weeks wouldn鈥檛 bring such a grin of happiness to a young boy鈥檚 face!

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by James Barton and has been added to the website on behalf of John Fennell with his/her permission and they fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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