大象传媒

The end of World War Two was my eleventh birthday. I well remember the excitement I felt. The atmosphere seemed charged with a special magic, I thought it was all for me at the time, I had recently passed my eleven plus examination and was due to go to the local Technical College in the September. The end of the war signified such a special time for me. I lived in Dagenham, Essex and remember the day that war was declared. I was five years old at that time and I clearly remember playing under our dining room table that was covered by a red chenille cloth. I used to sit under the table and imagine all sorts of things.

The war did not mean too much to me personally, I was not evacuated, my parents did not want us (my brother and I) to be sent away. My father's view was that if a bomb fell on us we would all die together, and I think that if I was to have to make a decision about my own children in those circumstances I would have felt the same.

I went to the local primary school and enjoyed my schooldays very much. I never missed going to school, we seemed to be lucky in that although we lived not too far away from London and the Dock area we missed most of the awful devastation that occurred in that area. My Aunt and Grandmother lived at Plaistow and when we visited them it was obvious that they had suffered more bombing than we did. The only time we came close to being bombed was one Saturday we went to visit my Grandmother and a land mine had fallen in the street near where she lived and we all had to be evacuated to the nearby school while the landmine was being made safe. I believe that it did not explode on contact and that is probably why we managed to avoid any injuries. We had to stay in the school overnight and were allowed to leave the next day.

The day war ended, my eleventh birthday, I remember the bonfires, the people dancing around them and the general feeling of excitement and the knowledge that this awful time was at an end, peace would prevail, or so it was hoped, and that life would soon be brighter and better for us all. I know I got told off by my Mum and Dad for staying out too late that day, I think I was forgiven though, not only had that war ended, it was my birthday, I was eleven, I had passed my scholarship as it was called then, it was the beginning of a new life for me and for us all.

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