大象传媒

From the Battleship Nelson.
Apart from snippets of news from Uncles abroad in the Army or Navy I have no recollection of what newspapers or the wireless had to say. Denley was on the Battleship Nelson. Very rarely someone would tell me he was coming home on leave and I would try to keep awake listening for him to arrive. Suddenly I would be awake as the gate banged shut. Then a door banged. The next day I would go round to Grandmas to see him but it was always, "Oh ays none up yet". When he finally was he would tousle my hair and thump me - supposedly in play-then take off to find his mates and tour the pubs. (Sailors were often away for years at sea. They wore a uniform of bell bottomed trousers with seven creases to represent the seven seas. If you walked along behind them they had a rolling gait from years on the decks of ships)
The postman would sometimes bring small boxes of tea and packs of compressed raisins when the Nelson had docked in Ceylon. One Easter he brought a large cardboard box just for me from some place called Portugal. On the lid was a picture of a cup of coffee with a wisp of steam above it (Java coffee). I opened it carefully and there was a huge egg made of chocolate! Inside it was filled with chocolates! (Everything was rationed. There were no toffees! A visit to the local shop, Mrs Brooks` Beer Off at the bottom of Wesley Street, often meant coming back with the mysterious message - "Mrs Brooks says she has some.......under the counter". Grandma in a mood would sometimes reply, "Go back and tell her to let them ay it as had the other!")
For some weeks no small card came which told Grandma her son Denley was safe. Mam worried more and more about her brother to which Grandma would say, "I`ll bet ays bin up tuh summat." On one occasion a card arrived on which was stated, `Lost anchor in minefield under attack from Jap suicide planes- All alright`. Another silence was explained when he came on leave to say that a higher ranking officer had told him to repair a fire. He was back shortly to ask if the fire had been repaired to which my Uncle had retorted to the effect that if he was in such a hurry then he could fix it himself. Two weeks in the Brig.
My Dad made me wooden toys, planes, a scooter and a machine gun. The machine gun kind of took off amongst people he worked with and he made a lot of them. Then he came home to say a mate wanted a desk for his daughter. This was a major job and he had to cadge a large drill called an auger for the inkwell holes. He exchanged the desk for a marvellous Hornby Trainset for me. Denley brought back from the Nelson a model of The Vanguard made by the carpenter from scraps of wood.

Another sailor made soft toys from ships blankets and I got a dog duly named Tojo after the Jap military leader.

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