大象传媒

Before I joined the WAAF we had a whole school of evacuees arrive in the village, from Thornton Heath, near Croydon. These poor kids had mostly already been bombed out of their homes, and were from quite poor families.
They were brought to our local Drill Hall and "paraded" on the stage, with local mothers choosing which ones they wanted. it must have been awful for the poor little things, just left their mothers and brought down here to a sort of auction!!! My mother said she would have 2 children, but wanted them from the same family and eventually she found 2 little girls, Christine and Doreen Scholes. Their underclothes and school stockings were in a terrible state, and we took them out - I was about l5 then - to use our cherished clothing coupons and clothe them properly. Their brother was billeted 3 miles away and used to cycle over to see them. We had Doreen for about 3 and a half years, but Christine won a scholarship and was moved to Bracknell after about l8 months. Doreen was very nervous after the bombing and we had a huge land mine drop just behind our house while they were here - I cannot imagine why they thought our area was safe as we were near the Vickers factory at Weybridge. This land mine brought down our front bedroom ceiling and split the lavatory pan in two, flooding the sitting-room beneath. Doreen was terrified. My father was about to go on Home Guard duty and I was in the WJAC (Womens Junior Air Corps) preparatory to joining up, so my mother was left to cope with them while we went out.
We saved our sugar rations and Mum always made a birthday cake and gave them parties and we took them out for treats.
When they went back home (against our wishes) because their mother had decided to leave the NAAFI and start up again, they were bombed out twice more and in the process lost our address. My mother never understood why they hadn't contacted us, but 2 years after her death (my mother) there was a tap at my door and it was Doreen. She had been driving through and seen the signpost for Send, so called on me; I also met Christine again just before she died of a kidney disease, but Doreen and I are now in contact again.

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