大象传媒

I was born in 1940, when 'the war' was just six months old. When I was just six months old, a bomb landed in our back garden, wrecking my Dad's beloved lawn and shattering all the glass in the house; in particular in the veranda where I was sleeping in my pram. I don't remember this incident, but I do rememember the tiny shop we moved to when I was two. It had a very small living room, a miniscule kitchenette, two bedrooms and a toilet at the bottom of the garden.

Also at the bottom of the garden was the air raid shelter, shared with our neighbours. Two nights of this and my Mum rebelled, bought an indoor shelter and resigned herself to being squashed in with her two small children.

When the bombing was bad my Dad parked a caravan on a farm, near a reservoir, and we cycled there in convoy; Barbara first, then Dad with me in a basket chair behind him and then Mum laden with all she could carry. Idyllic days - helping on the farm, paddling in the reservoir, eating fresh apples and plums and getting stung in a pit of nettles!

My Dad was an ARP warden and one night when the siren sounded I was left on my own counting pennies into piles of twelve, while Mum went to collect Barbara from a friends house. It seemed an eternity before she returned and the bombs sounded much louder that usual.

An uncle came home on leave from the Middle East bringing presents:- 2/6d, a leather bag embossed with camels, a silver bracelet, an orange (yuk! I hated it) and a bar of Cadbury's milk chocolate. Their factory was ten minutes walk away and I had never tasted chocolate! For sweets we ate saccharine tablets or dried bananas. Our choice of cereals was Weetabix or Cornflakes and of course Porridge. Oats were added to most savoury dishes to 'pad' them out an make them more filling.

VE day meant queueing for ice cream, only to learn they had sold out before we arrived; running up and down the pavement cheering at trams which trundled past ringing their bells; having a giant flag hung from our bedroom window; wondering what life would be like without 'the war'

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.