大象传媒

Two funny stories I remember relating to the war years.
I lived in a little village in Gloucestershire in the big house at the end of the street. We were lucky to to have an inside loo and the luxury of aceteline gas lighting instead of oil lamps that lit the cottages. When war broke out the village was asked to take evacuees from Edgbaston the most upmarket and posh area of Birmingham. Of course everyone agreed and the evacuees duly arrived, in what seemed to them an utter backwater of civilization. They were to be living in cottages where cooking was still done over an open fire and where the Sunday joint was taken to be cooked in the baker's oven. Where there were sentry box loos in a corner at the end of the garden, and everything seemed primative in the extreme.

Our hospitality was spurned and needless to say they returned to the risky delights of Edgbaston at the first possible opportunity!

The second story concerns the fact I have always looked younger than my age. I was on holiday from the Wrens and in those days there were no clothes coupons for folk in the services only the supply of a uniform, so our civvy clothes were usually much too young in style and gave a false impression of age. I got on a local bus and was given a half price ticket which I happily accepted. The next day I had to travel on the same bus, this time in my Wren's uniform much to the conductors consternation. I don't recall what I actually paid for that trip, perhaps
I got away with it again.

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