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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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A rat on the pillow

by The Building Exploratory

Contributed by听
The Building Exploratory
People in story:听
Rachel Tomkins
Location of story:听
London
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A9019884
Contributed on:听
31 January 2006

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War web site by Karen Elmes at the Building Exploratory on behalf of Rachel Tomkins and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Rae lived with her family above their shop in Vartry Road, just off the Seven Sisters Road in North London. As there was no garden they did not have an Anderson shelter. There was a shelter on a piece of empty ground nearby but they found it very flimsy and did not take shelter there during air raids. Instead Rae and her family would go to her grandmother鈥檚 shelter in Chelsea. Rae鈥檚 grandmother ran a huge greengrocers and had a large shelter in the basement. They had bunks put down there and quite a few people used to use the shelter.

Every night, when Rae鈥檚 parents shut their shop, they would catch a number 11 bus down to Chelsea and the safety of the basement. One night when she was on her bunk in the basement, Rae had a bit of a shock:

鈥淚 opened my eyes and there was a rat on the pillow! I just got up and I went upstairs to what they call the shop parlour and I said to my grandmother 鈥業 refuse to go down there any more!鈥 She was a very staid, Victorian lady 鈥 鈥榶ou鈥檝e got to come down鈥, I said 鈥榥o way, if I鈥檓 going to get killed I鈥檓 going to get killed up here!鈥 And I never did go back down there, but I was lucky, soon after that I got called up.鈥

This story was recorded by the Building Exploratory as part of a World War Two reminiscence project called 鈥淢emory Blitz鈥. To find out more please go to About links

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This story has been placed in the following categories.

Air Raids and Other Bombing Category
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