大象传媒

I was almost 4 years old when the war started so my memories are through the eyes and imagination of a 4 year old living in terraced house near banks of the Tyne.

Germans! what are they? "The Germans are coming - you must hide or lie flat" What or who was I hiding from? Are they insects, fearsome animals (like tigers) or bad people. No one seemed to explain that Germans were in fact people like ourselves, so my young mind conjured up its own interpretation so when I heard siren sound I was to be found hiding under the table, peeping out from under the tassels of the green velour cloth that always adorned the table. If I was outside and heard siren or an aeroplane go over I would lie flat in the middle of the street (very few had cars then) until I was picked up and taken indoors
If the siren sounded through the night I would be taken into the air raid shelter which was a concrete building in the back yard in which my mum and aunt had installed a des-bed, where the bed opened out of a cupboard. I would be wearing my siren suit which was a warm all-in-one (rather like a catsuit) but with a hood and a flap in the back closed by press-studs but very useful if a visit to the outside toilet was necessary. (This was a garment made by my aunt who was very clever and could make anything out of anything. Many clothes had to be recycled due to the shortage of clothing coupons). I loved to be in the air raid shelter in the middle of the night as hot drinks and biscuit treats would appear and we would sit by the light of an oil lamp and sing.
I was an only child and was upset when my Dad was called up when I was about 5 yrs old. I used to worry he would get killed. My uncle who was older and had been in the first world war was an air raid warden who used to go around shouting at people to "get those b..... lights out". When you were outside it was pitch black and If you had a torch it had to be covered with tape leaving a tiny hole at bottom so you could see the curb stone. Most people then had only gas lighting and as I got older I would have to see myself into a dark house - feel my way along the passage and into the living room, go carefully across the room to the fireplace and carefully feel along the mantlepiece for the matches to light the gas light(making sure of course that the curtains were drawn) Gas mantles were very precious and were very flimsy so great care had to be taken not to break them with the match.
We missed out on sweets and fruit during the war and my greatest wish was to have a banana. My aunt would sometimes boil parsnip and pour custard over and I would imagine it was bananas of pears. She also kept a rabbit one year and killed it for a xmas dinner. Christmases were great - A good Christmas was getting plenty of books, which I can not remember there being a shortage of. Xmas Dinner was always at my Aunt's house who lived a few doors down the street and tea was always at our house then we would all go into the front room where the fire was lit as a special treat and sing, play card or board games and listen to radio in the background.
I remember the radio had Home Service and Light programme and we would listen to programmes like Forces Favourites, Itma, Max Jaffa and the Palm Court Orchestra. Valentine Dial "this is your storyteller the Man in Black". Worker's Playtime was broadcast from different factories at at lunch times. Children's programme was Toytown with Larry the lamb and Mr Growser.
School - when I was 5 yrs old I only had schooling half days in an upstairs flat where someone had givent their front room to teacher and that was I believe, because the soldiers were using part of the school that I eventually attended. Redheugh girls school in Prest Street
I remember once going to visit an uncle in South Shields and seeing huge balloons in the sky for the first time and being quite excited by these strange things. My uncle said "I'll tell you what, would you like me to send some over to Gateshead". I couldn't wait to get home and sure enough there they were above my house and I in my innocence was adamant that they belonged to me.
I was nine yrs old when the war ended and everyone put tables out in the street and we had a party with someone playing a piano and other people playing drums. Then we all looked forward to our soldiers coming home and had "Welcome home" parties and streamers across the street. To a child who didn't understand the full implication of war it wasn't too bad and I was too young to be aware of the shortages of sweets, fruit and other luxuries as I had not known or remembered what it was like before the war - We then experienced a long wait for things to return to normal - as rationing continued for quite some time - I think the big event was when the lights came on again and the streets were lit up and we were at last brought out of those years of extreme darkness
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