大象传媒

I was 3 years old when the war started.I had just atarted infants school when the Germans started to send over their Bomber Aircraft.
The family would go to bed and when the WARNING sirens sounded Mom and Dad had to wake us up and dash downstairs to get dressed. I can always remember standing on the chair crying "I can't find my shirt"
Once dressed we had to walk or run about one and a half miles along the Railway Bank, the Pathway was called the Tins because one side was the boundary to a factory and the fence was made of corrugated sheets of metal. At the end of the Pathway was a disused coal pit -which was our air raid shelter. There were hundreds of people in taking refuge.
One year I woke up and it was Christams time. I saw Father Christmas dressed in his red suit with his sack.
After a few hours the All Clear Siren would be heard so that we could go back home. We still had to go to school or work the next day. This went on for ages.
At home we had no electricity- only gas lights and coal fires.We did not have much furniture. Every night the kettle would be filled before we went to bed in case the water pipes were damaged in the bombing.
After a while we were given Anderson Air Raid shelters to put in the garden. These were fitted out with home made bunk beds but by then the worst of the air raids had finished.

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