大象传媒

Life in wartime as I remember it, was more dull and dreary than exciting.
Rationing, and Blackout made things difficult. I was an evacuee for the first two years and there was one thing which I remember clearly from that time.

My school was evacuated from Newcastle to Kendal and took over a Country Hotel where we lived, and had lessons in a castle. Every Saturday morning we had fire drill.

The hotel was equipped with fire escapes in the third floor bedrooms. These consisted of a rope on a turn-table fixed to the window sill. The rope had to be fastened around the waist so that the escapee could climb out of the window and abseil to the ground.

As a prefect I had to see the younger girls out and then follow them.

It was a bit difficult but we got used to it, and finally the abseiling stopped.
One day the turn-table jammed and a girl was left dangling on the rope. Fortunately she was rescued through a first floor window- and that was the end of Saturday morning fire drill!

This story was submitted to the 鈥淧eoples War Site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Freda Strand and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

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