大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Website by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Margaret Clarke and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Now we were home, the reality of war was upon us. First came the Andersen air raid shelter, which was dug deeply in the ground with a steel roof, which was shaped like a dome. Inside were two sets of bunks. It was horrible, it smelt of damp and was musty. When the sirens went, my Dad would wrap me in the eiderdown and carry me to the shelter. You didn't come out till the "all clear" went. No matter what sort of night we had, you still had to go to school and work. Then we had the blackout that I didn't like - every window in the houses had blackout curtains. You weren't allowed to let any light out. They had wardens patrolling the streets. If there was one glimmer of light, they would shout "Put that light out". Also there weren't any street lamps, so you could imagine eveywhere was pitch black. You took a torch with you everywhere you went at night so you could see the kerbs.

Dad went in the Home Guard. When you see "Dad's Army" on television, you can relate to the things that went on. Thank goodness we were never invaded, I don't know where we would have been. Mum was in the ARP, they were there to patrol the streets making sure you couldn't see a light.

One night we had a very bad air raid. Dad came upstairs and carried us into the shelter. The noise of the bombing was deafening. A house on our road had been hit. After a few hours everything went quiet. Then we heard a ticking nose. Dad was convinced we had an unexploded bomb outside. It was only when daylight came, and Dad went outside to investigate, that he found the alarm clock on top of the shelter. We laughed about it afterwards, but at the time it was very frightening.

I didn't like the blackout very much, but the funny thing was you weren't scared to go anywhere on your own. You always carried a torch and you never heard of anybody being attacked. I think I would be more afraid in this day and age. Nobody had cars, unless you were wealthy, so we would cycle to places and enjoy it. Dad went everywhere on his bike. He would take my Mother on his crossbar, even to the staff dance. I never saw my Mother on a bike. If she had to go a distance she would go by tram.

Then we had rationing. The only good about it was you didn't see many fat people, in fact we were all quite skinny. The amount of food we were allowed was very sparse - 2oz of cheese a week, 10 penny worth of meat. Even eggs were rationed, so Dad used to buy day old pullets and rear them, so we always had hens in the back garden and our own eggs. I didn't like the hens very much. If you went in the back garden, they would peck your legs. When it came to kill one for a meal, we couldn't eat it. Also we didn't have much fruit. When the greengrocer did get bananas or oranges, the word would get round and you would have to stand for hours to get served. Everybody was issued with ration books, so you were only allowed so many points a week, when they had gone you had to do without. Even sweets were rationed; your allowance was a quarter a week, so when it came near Christmas, we saved our allowance to make sure we all had sweets in our stockings. We didn't get a lot at Christmas, it could be a fairy doll, a colouring book, some crayons, apple, nuts and a tube of wine gums. We thought it was wonderful, you were so grateful for what you got in those days, they wouldn't think they were badly done to as money was very tight in the thirties and early forties, so nobody had more than anybody else.

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