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I LOST A BAG OF SUGAR — RATIONS FOR A WEEK

I was born May 31st 1939, just after my Parents moved from Paddington back to Worcester. We lived in Georges Yard, behind Greyfriars, Worcester, with my Grand-parents. Not long afterwards, we moved to South Street. It was a court of six houses with one toilet between the six. We had no running water. Father was in the Army so I didn’t see much of him during the war.

I started school at St Pauls, long since gone, but for some reason Mother moved me to St Peters, which is now Dyson Perrins Museum and Royal Worcester China.

I can remember we children were put in camp beds in the afternoon to have a sleep, this was at St Pauls. I don’t know where the beds came from. My main friend at school was Jeff Bullock with whom I’m still in touch. We played in Perry Woods and Ray Milner fell out of a tree and became a hospital case.

At the back of my house in South Street, there was a factory which made the famous ‘Mother Sigleys’ cough sweets. We children watched in wonder through the windows as the women rolled long ‘sausages’ of sweets, which were then cut into small sweets. I can recall a shop in Carden Street, which sold firewood and sweets. I took my ration book to Mr Walker, the shop owner for my ration of sweets and one sweet went just over the weight so he took a knife and cut one sweet in half — Hard times for a young boy! He had a wooden leg which he never kept covered. Another shop nearby was called Smiths, but we nicknamed it ‘Scruffy Smiths’ because it was a very dirty shop and the potatoes were always heavy in mud, which the housewives paid for in the weight.

The most sinful thing I did as a war child was to drop the bag of sugar I’d been sent to get with the ration book. Needless to say it burst and went everywhere. I was not a popular son in my Mother’s eyes that day.

Later when Dad was demobbed and got a job at Norton Barracks to a General, the Americans took over and I used to get sweets and gum, but more treasured than sweets were the comics which I used to pass onto my friends.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by June Woodhouse of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Fred Bowden and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions

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