大象传媒

I was born in Exeter, in January 1943. We lived in Exeter with my mother's family until I was about three and a half. When I was about ten or eleven, I started having a recurring dream, and I told my grandmother about it. I dreamt that I was lying down, in pitch-blackness, with my face very close to the ceiling. I was travelling forwards, bumping along, like in a train, but I felt that I couldn't move. Gran said 'Yes, that's right: when the sirens went off, during the blackout, we used to tuck you up on the bottom shelf of the tea-trolley, and wheel you into the Morrison shelter, under the stairs!'.

A short time later a bomb went off just up the road, about fifty yards away. It landed on or near the 'Welfare' building where all the Mums went with their babies once a week. The bomb had been left over from a German bombing raid on Plymouth that night, and some of the shrapnel flew through Gran's bedroom window and lodged in the dressing table mirror! I still have the bit of shrapnel somewhere.

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