大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Judie Krebs GMR Action Desk on behalf of Mrs Eunice Hinchliffe and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands website's terms and conditions.

My sister Marian and I were evacuated to Blackpool from 9 Town Street, Harpurhey, Manchester 9, two days before the war started. The Pleasure Beach was still open. Along with our class from Moston Lane Elementary School we went to a school, got a carrier bag of food then walked in a crocodile to the various lodgings. The people we went to wanted boys but they had to take us because they had room for 4, and my mother and 4 year old brother Ken were following on the Sunday. Whenever my dad came to visit I used to cry. He worked at Avroe's and was in reserved occupation. Indian annex burned down while we were there. We had already seen the show on the Pleasure Beach. They said at the start they'd picked a seat and the person on it would be chosen to assist in the performance. I was worried since they might pick me so I didn't enjoy the show. My sister Marian felt the same.
On weekday mornings we went to school and in the afternoons we were at a Methodist church hall where we did things like mental arithmentic because there were no desks. We were only there till the December, but it wasn't a happy time, even though Mum was with us, because we were split as a family.

The ironic thing was that we missed out on having an air raid shelter bacause we were away and my dad worked nights so we didn't qualify.
Looking back, the only eduactional high spot the war gave us was that oneof the teachers at Moaton Lane School when we got back there, had been a concert pianist and singer whose professional namd was Madame Bessie Bell. She taught us music appreciation which my sister and I still benefit from. She had gone back into teaching becasue of the war, so we have that to be thankful for.

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