大象传媒

I was born Jean Wilson in 1934. I was one of eight, 3 brothers and 5 sisters. My Father was very bitter because he was lame and could not join in the war. He worked on the trams, after his shift, he would open the cellar door, we would all be there, my mum thinking it was the Safest Place. She shouted at him for opening the cellar door because we were being bombarded with a terrible Air Raid, the sky was lit up, he stood in the middle of the back yard waving his fists up at the sky, swearing something awful.

It was a Saturday, my Mum used to go for her shopping to St John鈥檚 Market in Liverpool, my father was setting this big wooden table for our tea, being a big family we had a lot of crockery set out, I was playing under the table when we had an Air Raid- cups and saucers were rattling and falling into each other, the table was just lifted off it鈥檚 legs- and what a heavy table it was. My Mum came through the door as white as a sheet, she told my Father she had just stepped out of the market when it got a direct hit.

We lived in Prince Edwin Lane or Street, Everton Valley. The street was sloped, our house started the straight, there was an Air Raid and all the houses sloping got a direct hit and went into each other like a pack of cards, we were lucky as we were on the straight, but all those poor people on the slope were killed, it was tragic. My brother and I used to go out after a raid and pick up loads of shrapnel. We always went into the cellar when there was an air raid on, thinking it was the Safest Place, my mum used to put the dolly tub against the back door. We had an awful raid and the noises were like blasts, the next thing the back door was blown off bolts and hinges and screws, the dolly tub went rolling into the next cellar because we had two cellars, and all of us young ones were looking big eyed, afraid and bewildered. In the end it came too much for my Mum to cope, she was having another baby and was told she was heading for a nervous breakdown, so we were evacuated. I would rather have stayed at home that be evacuated, but that is another episode in my life.

'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of Jean Wilson and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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