大象传媒

The year was 1939 and I wondered why the grown ups were always talking about the war that would happen soon. In my family were eight children: Vic, Jack, Rosa, Doris, Len, May, Jessie, Ralph, Terry and of course Mom and Dad. The big boys were being called up; they were the words of the day. Vic was a territorial so he was the first to go, then Jack got his calling up papers. A short time later my brother Len got his papers, so off he went.

My Mom always seemed to be crying. My sister Doris was called up into the Wrens, but my eldest sister Rosa was married and had a young baby, so she had to go into munitions while Mom looked after the baby, which left my sister May, brother Ralph and myself Jessie. My Mom said we were going to be evacuated to live in the country with all the cows, sheep and horses, just like the ones in our books.

The day came for us to be evacuated, so off to school we went with our suitcase, a bag of goodies and a label pinned to our coat. There were lots of tears and hugs and, 鈥淏e good for mommy鈥�. The whistle blew for us to get in line and then the bell rang for us to get on the train. After a long and tiresome journey we arrived at Bath station. We had to get on a coach and were taken to a small village called Tunley. We had to go into a big hall where there were a lot of ladies picking out children that they wanted.

We were picked at last and went to a nice house. There was a lady called Mrs Maggs who said, 鈥淚 expect you are tired so you can go to bed now鈥�. No wash no supper and no cocoa only a candle to light the way. A younger lady, Mrs Maggs daughter, Millie showed us to our rooms.

We kept being punished for the silliest things so, after two months I went to the little post office in Tunley and asked for a post card and a stamp. I had a pencil in my pocket and I wrote to Mom asking for her to come and take us home, as we did not like the people or the punishment. My mother came that weekend and took us back to Dagenham in Essex and back to the war.

Of course, we had no idea what was going on, but we learned very quickly what to do. So we were very careful and never went very far from home.

One morning between the men having gone to work and children getting ready for school I was coming down stairs,and I heard a machine gun firing. Mum was shouting, 鈥淕et under the stairs!鈥� It was a German plane getting rid of its bullets and was all over in just a few minutes. I went to call for my friend for school and there were bullet holes in the brickwork right down the road.

Another time I saw a low flying German plane from my Mom鈥檚 bedroom window. I was glued to the floor and saw the bomb doors open and according to talk, a breadbasket full of bombs was dropped about a mile away and killed many people. I did not know if I was coming or going so Mom said, 鈥淕o back to bed and take the morning off school.鈥�

Yet another thing happened that we all saw. It must have been a Sunday because all the men were at home. There was a dog fight in the sky above us. The German baled out and as he was coming down you could see his knee length shiny boots. The men started to run towards him but the police got there first, so all the rolling pins and copper sticks went back home in good condition.

The men used to be lookouts, and a lot of talking went on until one night, the men were very agitated as the bombs had stopped and all they could hear was an awful engine noise. when it stopped there was silence for about a minute and then a terrific bang. We found out the next morning that they were doodlebugs and plenty of them. The doodlebugs came all day and all night. I cannot remember when they stopped. They were nasty because you could not see them they just dropped and many people got killed. So we all had to take a chance and hope for the best

I had been shopping for Mom when I saw this ugly thing in the sky. I started to run, the engine stopped and it took a dive and so did I, straight into the hedgerow,the doodlebug dropped on the shops. I think I was given nine lives that day.

May and Ralph went their own way so it was me who did most of the shopping .It was me who had to stand in line for hours, just to get some oranges for two children who had green ration books. It wasn鈥檛 often the green grocer got any fruit.

I had reached fourteen so I had to find a job and work for my living. My first job was in a bakers shop, I had to walk there and back although I was very frightened.

My dad decided to decorate the front room and although the next day we were hit with one of those rockets you can鈥檛 hear or see. I was injured slightly and had to go to the church where hall which was turned into a first aid post, While I was there the postman came and asked for a Miss Jessie Wade, I鈥檇 forgotten it was my fifteenth birthday so I got my cards and a kiss. We had to sleep in the school hall where. we got plenty of tea and cocoa and free meals. I could not work, as I had no clothes apart from what I went to bed in that night.

We were given a nice house shortly after and we managed to salvage some things from what was our house. We all settled into the new house very quickly and were all given a few nice clothes and we got on very well. The war was over and the men were all coming home except Jack he was killed by the Japanese. We all settled down to a normal life. Food rationing was still on but a few things were getting into the shops, so life was starting to be good. I went into the Land Army for two years and that is where I met my husband. Thank god our four children never have to go through what we went through.

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