大象传媒

I remember one of the girls with whom I was stationed at RAF Ballykelly was called Lily Henry. She came from Belfast and the way she spoke was typical of a girl from the city. She wrote a little rhyme on the back of a photograph I have of her,
鈥淩emember me 2.10.1945
When this you see, remember me forever.
Remember me the good old days,
We skirted at Ballykelly together.

She was such a character, she had the most beautiful jet black hair. I remember we were all at a dance together and this Canadian came over to ask Lily for a dance. He said to Lily, 鈥淎re you French?鈥� Lily answered, like lightening, 鈥淎re you kidding?鈥� She never had to think for an answer. She was always talking about her Granny who she described as a 鈥淕ag鈥�. Lily was a mechanic by trade and worked in the garage on the camp. She didn鈥檛 go out with any of the boys very often, but one night she had made a date to go out with a Yank, who took her to Londonderry. They were walking down the street when Lily spied the Sergeant in charge of her garage coming towards them. He was a small man who looked like the Japanese Premier Tojo and this is what he was called as a nickname. Lily didn鈥檛 want to meet Tojo while she was out with her escort for the night, so she darted into an air raid shelter which was just on the side of the footpath without saying anything to her escort. When she came out of the air raid shelter the Yank had gone. He hadn鈥檛 realised where she had gone to and had disappeared off, but when Lily came back she told us of her evening. One weekend Ellie and I were on weekend leave and Lily and Anne Kennedy who was from Dublin, were at the camp together. Lily, who had the most beautiful black hair, had become a peroxide blonde over the weekend. Anne was already a peroxide blonde and during the weekend the pair of them had been talking about hair colouring and Lily decided to become one also. We couldn鈥檛 believe what we saw, you wouldn鈥檛 have known her. She kept it that blonde colour while we were at Ballykelly. On another occasion one morning we were going for breakfast and as we went through the office, and there was Lily on her knees, scrubbing the floor. We asked her Lily what she was doing in the office. Poor Lily was being punished after getting caught doing something wrong and was getting jinkers, and only replied, 鈥淚f my granny could only see me now!鈥�

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.