大象传媒

Wartime memories of Preston near Hitchin Part Three 鈥� The 鈥楬ome Front鈥� continued.

Part three of an oral history interview with Mrs. Rebecca Cook conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淭here was none of this trouble about healthy food because our rations were sufficient and we used to eat lots of vegetables. Sweets were rationed. First of all they were just none existent and then it came in so we had one choc bar a week, you imagine! One little two ounce bar a week. I think most people could afford their bar of chocolate. I remember when it came to the autumn one of my sisters and I we used to start saving our chocolate coupons and then we made ourselves a big tuck box, all for Christmas, we saved it all up for Christmas. So in the meantime we didn鈥檛 have any sweets you see, not that it mattered. We used to eat raw carrots and lots of apples and pears because as I say being on the farm we were more fortunate than most because we did have all that free fruit. Lots of people in the country, I think most people had some sort of fruit tree, yes it was just the big cities where they missed out.

Farmers I had to admit came off better than most people because also we had our own eggs and rabbits to help out the rations. My brothers went shooting. They would shoot rabbits and pheasants if one happened to come across. So the rations were helped out and being a big family sometimes what the little ones 鈥� it was easier to make a bigger joint go round a lot of people rather than trying to eek out because we had two ounces I think of butter each, a week! Yes, we had these coupons, coupons for clothes.

I know if you went into town and you saw a queue you just automatically joined it in case it was something you needed. You know like a battery for our torches because it was always just so dark if you went anywhere. You would have a torch that was just half blacked out, yes because the car lights had a sort of hood on them so it only showed a little bit of a beam. You would shade the lamp on your bicycle, yes. We didn鈥檛 go out very much after dark! It was too worrying what with the air raids.

I remember doing needlework for School Certificate and we had to learn 鈥榬enovations鈥� and how to make something, you know we would all take something, we would all take perhaps an old dress and we were shown how to cut it down and make it into something else. We would perhaps cut six inches off the bottom of a skirt and put in a band of a different colour to make it a bit longer. Yes, you were always letting out things. That is high fashion now-a-days quite often and when you see the jeans that they have especially torn and ragged and patched! We would have been ashamed to go out in those, you wouldn鈥檛 have dreamt of it in the height of the war! Oh, shoes, they were very, very difficult and wooden soled clogs came in. We didn鈥檛 ever go to school in them we just managed to get enough shoes for school but we did buy these wooden soled clog things for about home.

The radio was a big part of our lives and every night it was nine o鈥檆lock Big Ben sounded. And I suppose it was on 鈥� there were other news items but mainly it was nine o鈥檆lock at night and Big Ben and then it was Alvar Lidell or Bruce Belfridge? and we got to know all the different names reading the News. Father would have a big map of the world on the kitchen wall and we had little flags and especially when it got to the end when the Allies were advancing and at 鈥楧-Day鈥� and at different times he would put the flags in. Yes, I remember that. I know the boys took far more actual interest in the progress of the war than we girls. But, yes I know dad and if we spoke or whispered or we just had to go out while the News was on.

Then we had different weeks. There was 鈥楤attle of Britain Week鈥� and 鈥榃arships Week鈥� when anybody in the village who could do anything, say a poem or act, we would put on a show for people and they would pay to come in and listen to us. We had National Savings, yes. We all used to take our money every Friday and buy a stamp, a six penny stamp.

I remember my sister and I just managed to keep the Sunday School ticking over. I used to read them Bible stories and my sister used to help the little ones colour text and an elderly lady in the village used to come and play the organ for us. And we got the evacuees in and we just kept that little Sunday School going because there were no young men or middle aged men left to run it for us you see.

There was a good little village shop. But we used to go into town for our main grocery shop. Well, he used to come out one day on the Monday, I can see him now, and he used to sit at the kitchen table and take the order and it would all be delivered by van on the Tuesday. Then if there was something extra in the week, or even after school because we went into town by then, we would go down and collect anything mother wanted. And the baker called, that was the local baker. We knew everybody and the local butcher and they would call. I think 鈥� I don鈥檛 know how they managed because the bread was rationed. It was easier certainly with a big family and there was always yesterdays bread that they could bring which we could use up for toast or whatever. I never remember going hungry. It got a bit boring, especially as the years went on and when it came to Christmas, how mother - well we just couldn鈥檛 make a Christmas pudding towards the end or a cake, there just wasn鈥檛 the dried fruit.

And how mother filled our stockings at Christmas? I remember, I didn鈥檛 realise until afterwards, but one of my big sisters had made two of us Nursing outfits, had managed to get white fabric and made aprons and caps and got some bandages and things. And there was a wood work teacher lived in the village and he made dolls house furniture for one of my little sisters and there was also a couple, they were book publishers, and they would bring books for our stockings. Everybody helped, it was so kind and they used to make things and we all helped each other. We made so many things. Fancy hair bands for our school friends. I remember making a very frilly apron for somebody, yes and tea cosies. Then I suddenly had a thing for making toys and I鈥檇 make a stuffed rabbit or a teddy bear or something but you had to raid mother鈥檚 cupboard and see what there was that you could cut up and make use of. Yes, we were great improvisers you see and it taught us to 鈥楳ake Do and Mend鈥�. There were posters everywhere, 鈥楳ake Do and Mend鈥� and 鈥楥areless Talk Costs Lives鈥�, what were all the other posters?

I had two older sisters in London, then my elder brother in the RAF and then the other brother more or less running the farm. Then there were sort of four girls in the middle at the Grammar School and doing those sort of things and helping on the farm and rearing rabbits. We were never at a loss and nearly always, being on a farm there were some cousins or somebody else there as well! How mother coped I don鈥檛 know! We practically brought up a couple of cousins, they would come out and stay on the farm with us. Yes, it was wonderful and looking back and having a good Christian mother who taught us our morals and our Faith. Yes she lived to be 96 bless her! I think farm children are very privileged, we鈥檇 got our freedom.

I think we kept on until eighteen at the Grammar School in those days. Yes, because when it was becoming towards the end of the war and there were signs that we knew it was just a matter of time the Headmistress gave out that when 鈥榩eace鈥� was actually declared there would be no school that day. So of course we kept the radio on each day and thinking is it going to be today and then at last on Tuesday morning, the 8th of May 1945 we woke up and heard the news, so we leapt out of bed and said, 鈥楬urray, a day off school.鈥�

The silliest thing that I can remember doing is, two of my sisters and I we had ponies, we had made red, white and blue rosettes already and we went down the field and tied them on our ponies with joy and went into town and people lit bonfires. We went to church and we rang the bells! Yes, we rang the bells, at least I didn鈥檛 I wasn鈥檛 a bell ringer in those day, but somebody did. Because all through the war they were only going to be a sign of invasion, bells, so they weren鈥檛 rung at all.

I belonged to a thing called the 鈥楪irls Life Brigade鈥�. We didn鈥檛 actually parade from our school, but any uniform, that was it, it was all uniforms, Army, Navy, Air Force, the Nurses, yes and the Cubs and Scouts and Guides and mine was the Girls Life Brigade. I remember going to this, it was called Butts Close, a park just on the edge of Hitchin. We all lined up and that was just lovely really, it was so peaceful and I think we were marching and being thankful to God for seeing us safely through and for defeating the enemy. I know I was a teenager then. Yes we must have all gone into St. Mary鈥檚 Church then and had a service, yes, of Thanksgiving. People were thankful and we were a much more a God fearing country then. And I know people turn to God when they are in need more than when everything is going well but now-a-days you know He seems almost to have been forgotten. He鈥檚 not! There are lots of very good lively churches but it鈥檚 sad to say as England as our country God has seen us through these two terrible war, we鈥檝e had an Empire and He has blessed us. But now we seem to have turned our back on Him and it does say in the Bible 鈥榊ou鈥檝e lost your love and I will put out your light鈥� we must remember, we must remember that we owe everything to Him watching over us.鈥�

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