大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer on behalf of Gordon Blockley and has been added to the site with his permission. Gordon Blockley fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Life was austere in 1942 and as a child of eight the one treat that was eagerly anticipated was the weekly trip to the cinema - remember there was no television in those days.

Outside the Odeon in Luton during the winter of that year, we had been queuing for about an hour one afternoon, and those in the queue were feeling sorry for themselves, partly because of the cold, the shortages and the general gloom of the war with winter superimposed.

As we stood there shivering, a convoy of some twenty army lorries passed by each carrying about a dozen soldiers. As they passed, they all shouted "You Lucky People", and suddenly I realised what they meant, as they were presumably off to the front, many not to return, and a place as the civilian queuing for a cinema must have looked very cosy from their viewpoint.

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