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Childhood Memories in Hayle Cornwall

My memories of the war are rather sketchy as I was only 15 months old when war broke out but I do have some.
I was born in Lelant, Cornwall where I lived with my mother and father.
Dad was called up and went to serve in the Pioneer corps. After a while, Mum & I moved to Hayle, where most of my memories were made.

One of my earliest memories is the wearing of gas masks. I had a ‘mickey mouse’ type and to this day I love the smell of rubber! I remember being at school in the playground with the rest of the school, carrying our gas masks over our shoulders.

I can remember the barrage balloon over Hayle power station and the dropping of foil strips. I had no idea of their purpose but they were good to play with!

Another time, my mother and I were living with my aunt in Hayle. One day some men came and took down the iron railings in her front garden. I can remember being very upset about this and thinking ‘how dare they take them down’!!
My aunt had a morrison shelter (I think it was called that) in her dining room and there were times when the siren would go and we all got into it. Either my aunt would say ‘after you Cecil’, and the other would reply ‘no, after you Claud’. Then one of them would say ‘oh, I have forgotten my knitting’ and go off and get it!!
When we were at home we would have to make do with the kitchen table!

Sometimes Mum and I would watch the planes going overhead and we would wave to them as they droned by.

My mother would take me to the camp where Dad was billeted. I seem to remember one Christmas, spending some time with him in the camp. We played ‘housie, housie’ or bingo as it is known today.
Dad took me to see where he slept and there were rows of neat beds, each with a gun placed in a precise position on it.

We would go to Hayle railway station and see Dad off on the train back to his billet, after home leave.

We had a land girl once — I don’t think I liked her very much — My mother had made our dinner and I was sitting opposite the land girl (can’t remember her name). Mum had put the dinner down in front of her, whereupon she gave it a very hard look. I asked her ‘what’s the matter with it?’ She replied very tersely ‘ Nothing I am allowed to look at my food aren’t I ?’ I remember thinking that she was looking at it as though it was poison!

Mum used to cook with dried egg and sometimes I used to dip my finger into the powder to get a taste — it wasn’t very nice!! A treat for me was to mix a small amount of cocoa powder with a small amount of sugar and eat it with a spoon!!

We were walking down the street one day and there were three men in front of us and I was told they were Italians. I learnt in later years that they were probably prisoners of war.

My mother took the accumulator to a shop in the town to be recharged. This was used to power the radio. It looked like a smaller version of the old kind of car battery I seem to remember!

On VE day I was allowed up late to see the street lights switch on. The war was over.

In 1947, I think it was, Dad returned home.

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