大象传媒

The landscape of war was different, not just the addition of alien elements like barrage ballons which littered the sky of every vulnerable place, the Emergency water supply tanks found in towns on every available site ( they were to provide water in case of damaged mains, but to most youngsters they were an immediate draw as playing areas, swimming, bombing any flotsom,rigourusly policed to deny this ,but of course not very successfully. I suspect that the EWS's where I lived would have been ineffective. Too full of games debris.) There were other alien structures, shelters, which I think were largely ignored in that area because many had their own. The public buildings were sandbagged relentlessly, the windows covered in brown sticky tape to minimise flying glass. Private houses were expected to take similar precautions, but paper had to be bought and most had a few remnants of old net curtaining which could safely be pasted to the windows , where it stayed almost untill the war ended. The outside was cleaned but the inside grew grey and miserable. Then of course there was the
blackout
We were all expected to get blackout from somewhere. Every window had to be secured with heavy black curtains or wooden frames covered in black paper. Thr rules were rigourusly enforced by ARP warden patrols. "Put that light out !" was a familiar cry in the days bombing was prevelant. (In our house on dark evenings, we usually sat in the firelight and were questioned about school told stories and poems sang songs. That of course when Dad wasn't on duty at the FAP ) To enter a public building at night one had to negotiate at least 2 lots of blackout barriers and be careful to see they were replaced.
It was an untidy sort of time, all the wartime facilities shelters EWS AFS(Auxilliary Fire Services) FAP etc. were signposted. The streets and gathering places were filled with posters DIG FOR VICTORY! CARELESS TALK COSTS LIVES and so on. Later on MR Wot appeared. I don't know if he was an official idea as the Litter Bug was but everyone took him up You would see him chalked up on walls and pavements everywhere. Wot No......?
Everywhere became gradually seedy; there was little one could do to brighten anywhere at least where I lived. Little decorating was done until the war ended
What places were not taken for EWS was dug over. Our local grammar schoolost its front lawns to grain and cabbages. (when they removed the sandbagging etc at the end of the war there were hundreds of butterfly pupae around the windows)
There were few private cars on the roads. Some had big balloons on the roofs indicating gas conversion. Of course most people couldn't afford cars anyway. Our doctor had 3 and we thought he must be a very wealthy man!
I often think we could learn a lot from wartime saving. All official post was sent with a gummed label for return. Few envelopes were new, and frequently had been the rounds at least 3 times if not oftener. Paper was in short supply ;bought items were given the minimum of wrapping and what there was was saved in a special bag in the pantry with any string or further wrapping. I remember Dirk Bogarde saying when he entered Belsen that a woman there was interested in his sandwich wrapper: it was newspaper, (as was wrapping of offerings from the local "chippy". )
Newspapers were minimal usually 2 sheets at the most with small smudgy print and vague pictures. Of course this was a bit later in the war but adds to the flavour of the time.
Driving was hazardous too. All headlights had to have covers so there was only a glimmer of light. Torches ,which were very necessary in blackout, were only allowed to have a 1" circle of light, the reat was covered in black paper. This was when Mr Shaws cat's eyes came into their own. As a bank manager remarked to Dad at the FAP "Marvellous things these cats eyes, but what happens when someone come the other way?" He had been straddling them. Ever after my Dad viewed any bank manager with a certain scepticism
We seemed to live on the edge of a bombing zone, which was a bit surprising as we were so near to the iCI compexes. The odd incendiary through the roofs of friends houses seemed to be the extent of damage, unless we, as children were spared the details.
One night the activity seemed much greater than usual. Dad was on duty at the FAP, Mum and us 3 took to the shelter. All was reasonably calm except for the ack-ack battery at South lane which seemed to be with us rather than 2 miles away. But all of a sudden there was a huge expolsion which nearly thew me out of the bunk. We lay in apprehension for a bit , then Mum went and returned a bit later in her coat carrying 3 quarters of an orange. I knew then it was serious, hadn't seen an orange for months. "I'm just going to find your Dad" she said. I can't rermember how I felt which is a bit odd really, being in such a close family. She returned in a short while saying they refused to let her through, there was glass and shop debris all over the place, "Some sort of bomb" but no details. We were all apprehensive until ad turned up around 6am ready to go to work. A landmine had " with a green silk parachute" had been dropped a quaretr of a mile away. Direct hit on 2 houses, one family gone and the usherette from the local cinema living next door was killed too. The Heavy Rescue had to dig a lot of people out, using anything available to cart away the wounded, mostly wrecked doors. We were glad to see Dad.
All the local shops lost windows, and spent the rest of the war with smaller windows in an area of plywood.
"I expect the bomb was meant for Hush-hush" everyone said.
Everything began to appear almost normal, to children anyway. No sweets but then we never had much of that anyway. My mother did her grocery shopping in town at a shop run by an Irish family. We ere lucky in not being without eggs. I think they came from Ireland. I liked going shopping in the holidays. The assistant would collect all the groceries , (no self service), and lay them out on the counter, then touch an item say the price , go on to the next add the price of that and so on until all was calculated. Mum kept a count as well, and if there was a disagreement it would start again. In the end the total was rarely wrong. And this in the days when items had a price of perhaps elevenpence threefarthings one shilling and fivepence ha'penny. We didn't realise we used all those bases at the time [ 4(farthings) 12 pence,20 shillings and 10 for the pounds.]
We lived in a village northof the town,with an old church and established houses. We were relative newcomers being rehoused from condemned property, so a kind of latent feudalism was in place. My mother was incensed when the word came round "Bananas on green books" ( Meaning fruit for the under 5's.) discovering the greengrocer tucking a large bunch of the fruit into the vicarage bag, where there was no one under 65. I had jaundice when I was 8 and had to get my prescribed bananas with a doctor's note.
About the time of the North African campaign, all the medical ,St Johns Ambulance ,Red Cross etc were often required at the docks in Liverpool to transport wounded to various hospitals. Some assisted in theatre too. This meant leaving work a lot of the time because transfer had to be daylight, which meant, of course that wages would reduce; well certainly for my father, the tannery at which he worked was a family firm who believed in a low wage for a fair days work.( It was the kind of firm where all the sons did a couple of weeks in each department so they could tell the veterans of 20 years service how to do their jobs. On retirement the worker got a handshake from the Managing director and 7s-6p about 32p as a gift.) Some of the walking wounded were surprised to find a lot of the helpers were loosing wages and attempted to have a "whip round", which was not generally accepted. On another occasion One man on discovering the wounded were German said he regretted loosing a double shift (3 days pay?)for a pile of Nazis, though they all did the job anyway.
School was generations away from today. The village school ( it was that despite being part of an industrial town) belonged to the Church of England. The girls school and infants was housed in an early victorian building, with gas lighting, and open fires, which were only effective when a fug was allowed to develope. The main classrooma were housed in a large hall divided by wood and glass partitions which could be slid back for full school events. There were other rooms for the infants, a separate establishment educationally, run by Headmistress Miss Tickle and her sister Miss Edith, infants taught by Mrs Guest a much loved teacher, who unlike some for the older children took no regard for financial or class circumstances but treated all alike. Does this sound like something out of a Victorian novel? Well the sewage system must have been invented by someone from that age. There was a shed over the stream at the back of the school yard which housed half a dozen drainpipes fixed over the stream furnished with a wooden seat. As you may imagine it was ripe in the warm weather and hurridly encountered in the cold. The caretaker flushed it all down with a hosepipe a couple of times a week.
The boys had a fairly new building, which also demonstrates the Victorian attitude somewhat.A friend's mother said they had a Buy a Brick drive to pay for it.
At the beginning of the war most of the male teachers went, and we had half day schooling for a while, mostly in the boys building fortunatly. One of the classrooms was set up as a n airaid shelter, with sandbag and blackout. I only remember being in it once in a raid. We all sat apprehensivly excited and were given Horlicks tablets, to calm us down?
I did not have a happy school life there. Unlike a lot of my classmates I did not live in a private house or good council house, parents not professional people, or well off . My mother did not take well to me being punished for minor transgresions which were ignored in others, and made her views known in the right place. One teacher remarked that she had to take Sanatogen for her nerves. Mum said it was lucky she could afford it. Her advice was that I should sit out of teacher's eye as I appeared to be under it a lot. It seemed to work. Not that I was the only one on the wrong side of this techer. She stood one girl on a chair with some notice round her neck until the Headmistress came in and took the teacher aside. Does Victorian come to mind again?
Of course we were connected to church and celebrated all the religious days, went to Sunday School and did all the C of E things.
We began to get small parties of people arriving, usually with a handcart holding very little , to take up residence in an empty shop or rundown house. They spoke strangely; of course we all recognise regional accents now but then it was unusual for us to go anywhere much. And of course travel was restricted. Liverpool was their home in the main , but the bombing there was fierce. One family arrived to take up residence in s amall lock up shop which,fortu
natly had access to accommodation above. The shop was about 14' by 12'( about 4mx3.5m) there was a small back shop with plumbing, and 2 rooms & bathroom above, into which the family Mother, 4 daughters and a son was accommodated. I asked them how they managed and could they not find better. The reply of course was they were lucky to get anything better than a tent. ( As I think about it now there must have been many who would have welcomed such a place.)
I was staggered to find that Liverpool was a large city. Would not believe at first, but my Liverpool friend put me right and detailed a journey from her home in the city centre to Fazackerly, how many buses or trams and how long she took .
The family were Roman Catholic, and it is odd to remember how we looked askance at them, all being strict low church C of E.
Food was always a bit of a problem of course. Rations were small. I remember Mum having the odd run in with the butcher, when he insisted the bit of fat given to roast the joint was to be regarded as part of the ration. Mum would not accept that. Fats were in short supply too no oil of course. I cannot remember thequantities except I know meat was set at 1s-11d per ration. I think it may have been 2 oz butter and a little more for margarine and lard. Some people mixed the butter and marge together, but Mum thoought it was better to have the odd treat to brighten up the week. Most folk only had chips, for example from the Chip shop. And sugar was rationed, though there was usually extra to be had in the soft fruit season for jam making. From time to time there would be a shortage of something , bread or potatoes which would be put on one of the special sections of your ration book. In general bread was awful anyway bulked out with anything they could get away with.
Our neighbour always had 7 stale loaves on order,for the weekend, because there wouldn't be enough if the bread was fresh. My Mum remarked that the bread was bad enough fresh, couldn't imagine how the overstale would taste. It was not as thoughthey were a large group 5 as we were
_ Sweets were rationed. We saved ours for Christmas or birthday. Cannot remeber what happened about milk. We always seemed to have enough. There was no cream of course, unless you had a dairyman who was a lifelong friend of your Dad and would sneak a little cream for a birthday trifle.
As shortages deepened, strange foods appeared, whalemeat, which we would tolerate if there was nothing else, snoek which we found unpalatable, a cross between neat and very smelly fish. Anyone who had access to rabbits was an open arms friend. I expect the gentry did better with game.
I don't know if it was strictly legal, but my Dad had an arrangement ,with a man who owned a pig, for Christmas dinner. I tasted chicken for the first time when I went to a birthday party at a farm when I was about 7. I can still remember the taste, and it was nothing like the battery chickens of the supermarkets.
Entertainment was restricted to the cinemaand radio and anything the various clubs dreamed up. Dancing was the favorite with older folk. The Liberal Club was a good spec for Old time dancing, and my Dad's firm allowed the use of the canteen & hall for Saturday night dancing. In larger towns and cities there were dance halls, Liverpool had the Lyceum jitterbugging was a favourite once the American forces arrived.
The radio was a lifeline " Monday night at eight" a variety show, Variety Bandbox on Saturday night, and best of all ITMA with Tommy Handley on Thursdays. The news was important too ;everyone seemed to listen to the 6 o'clock evening news, just to keep in the picture. you would get a crowd if you had an open door.
The next event of note was the arrival of the Americans or Yanks, the preferred term. This signalled a change in our circumstances. There were fewer raids on us, in fact hardly any I remember. But the noise was worse, as we lived near to one of the biggest of the American bases. The raids on the enemy were frequent and ever more loud as the numbers of planes increased.
Of course it was all a very mixed blessing. You couldn't go anywhere without meeting the "Yanks". And the problem was exacerbated by the constant stream of girls and women travelling from the big towns and cities to take advantage of this cornucopia of "talent"and money.. Nylons seemed to be the currency too, and of course real coffee and other goods readily available from the base PX. The GI,s didnt understand the problem They did not have a ration system, and it was only contact with the British public that they had a small incling of the problem. They could obtain steak (STEAK!!!) and cigarettes which were either unobtainable or very under the counter to us. We were lucky to get sausage. You could say that that 2 worlds collided then.
They were not the only foreigners of course. The Italians were well represented, as POW's of course, but they were able to walk around unescorted, wearing the battleblouse with very large coloured circles on the back and the trousers.

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