大象传媒

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When I was 18 I worked in a factory which made the hearing pieces that went in pilots helmets. Then later I worked in another factory that made made the metal parts of fire extinguisers for the forces.That was in Tulse Hill and several of us got the mickey taken out of us because we were so young and quite slim and had never used hammers before. I used to get up at five or six in the morning have a quick wash if there was any water and if there was any gas for light. Then I would get the train from Peckham Rye station to Tulse Hill then it was quite a walk to the factory. We would sometimes have to lie on the floor of the train because of the raids. We worked eight til eight and got home at about nine in evening. I worked on the top floor of the factory and all day we would have to go up and down the stairs for the air raids. We did the job because we had to and you were in serious trouble if you didn't turn up, it was almost like being a traitor if you didn't turn up.
I was married four days after my nineteenth birthday. My husband was in the airforce.
We lived in a ground floor flat with my mother and my sister and on my wedding night (which was in the middle of the blitz), my mother had a heart attack. So my sister and I had to run through the streets to get the doctor, who said we should sit and keep things as quiet and calm as possible! Eventually the wardens knocked on the windows and said we had to come out. We carried my mother out to the bunker where we stayed for the night. So my husband and I spent our wedding night in separate bunks either side of the bunker, and the next day he had to go abroad.Married

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