- Contributed by听
- ActionBristol
- People in story:听
- Patricia Jackson/Violet Jackson/Agnes Jennings/Robert Jackson
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A5908575
- Contributed on:听
- 26 September 2005
I was 5 years old when WW2 broke out.
One day I went to school and nearly all my class were carrying their pillowcases with their clothes and a few toys and don't forget the gas mask ! They also wore their name on their coat.
They were off to Temple Meads Station for a train to Devon.
They were being evacuated and I was really sad as there were only a few of us left.
When I was 7 years old there was the Good Friday bombing over Bristol. We lived in Marksbury Road at the time - opposite the Gasometers. One of them had a direct hit and we had gas, water and mud up to our windowsills. Luckily we were not in the shelter that night.
My Mum and I were visiting friends in Headley.
Dad was an ARP warden. He found a baby that had been washed from it's mother's arms when the Gasometer was hit.
While we were staying in Headley, a lady who lived a few doors away, asked me why I wasn't evacuated? I said that my Mum wanted to see the people I would be staying with. The lady said she had a relation in Dulcote, near Wells, and her husband was going in the army and she would be on her own.
I thought this would be a great idea, so I ran home to Mum and told her that I had got myself evaporated!!!!
One of the first letters Mum wrote was to say that she had been called up for munitions and she was making tanks at CAthedral Garage and the war would soon be over.
At the time it only had a tarpaulin over the roof.
I stayed with auntie for 3 years.
I came home for a week when it was quiet and while I was out with Mum - a bomb fell in the next street !
Mum pushed me under the hedge, while all the debris fell around us. I cried that I wanted to back to Aunties.
I was back at Aunties and playing in the fields with my friends when I heard a German plane go over. I called to them saying it was a German plane and they just laughed and said ''they don't come this way....''
Anyhow - it crashed in a nearby field but I don't know the outcome.
I lived with Auntie for 3 years and I had a lovely time . We always kept in touch, but there is nothing quite like being home with your Mum and Dad.
Pray nothing like this ever happens again.
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