大象传媒

I was at Primary School when war broke out. We didn't own a wireless set but our next-door neighbours turned theirs up loudly and we stood on our kitchen doorstep listening to the ominous declaration.
The corner shop near school sold us scrubbed carrots because they'd no sweets to sell. A small carrot cost 1/2d and a large one 1d.
In 1941 I joined the Girl Guides. We had fun pushing our trek cart around the streets collecting aluminium and used batteries for the war effort. It was about then that the railings were taken down from around the park, and also from front gardens. When we went to Guide Camp we slept in camouflaged Bell tents, and of course we took our gas masks.
About that time I passed the scholarship to Grammar School. We helped with the war effort there, too. We gathered dark, red rose petals and also rose-hips which I understood were sold to manufacturing chemists. Sometimes we had a day free from lessons and were taken by bus to local farms to help with potato-picking and during the summer holidays we were able to go to Harvest Camp - and got paid for it!
At school one gymnasium became a packing department and instead of a P.T. (now P.E.) lesson we packed greasy little bits of metal in grease-proof paper, watched over by an army sergeant. I was never sure what it was we were packing and I worried that if I did it wrongly we wouldn't win the war!
At weekends I often helped pack parcels for P.O.Ws. This took place in what is now Charles Frear Nurses' Building on London Road. The parcels contained comforts for the troops and sometimes there would be a broken bar of chocolate. Bliss.
Towards the end of the war folk became quite blase when the air-raid siren sounded, and took no notice. My friend and I were walking home at the end of the school day when we heard the familiar sound. Now at that time we were both getting interested in the opposite sex and there was this particular boy we both had a 'crush' on. We decided that this was an opportunity. We raced across the park then passed quite a lot of houses before we reached his. There we knocked loudly on his door and asked if we could shelter until the 'All-Clear'. He and his family sat having their tea, like so many other people, quite unconcerned that the siren had gone.
It was May 7th and my friend and I had walked into town after school. She was going to buy me an autograph album from the Midland Ed. in Market Street for my birthday present. On the corner of Market Street a newspaper seller was shouting "War is over" and I remember saying to my friend "This particular birthday will be really memorable."

'This story was submitted to the People's War sit by Sara-Jane Higginbottom of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Barbara Patricia Dorothy Letts and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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