大象传媒

By the time the tram arrived at Lime Street Station most of the kids in our group had eaten the goodies supplied by our Heywood Street, Everton, school. This led to disastrous consequences whilst on the train journey in that our teacher had to produce a private piece of her luggage, a chamber pot, or in our terms a 鈥減o鈥�, and a sickly smell pervaded our carriage for the length of the journey. We had suddenly become evacuees.

We arrived to confusion, completely disorientated and to many cries for 鈥淢UM鈥�. We couldn鈥檛 understand the strange accents around us and on entering a church hall were told to sit on a bare wooden floor. We were inspected by many strange ladies and selected. That is all but three. The three consisted of my little sister Ethel aged five, my friend Ruth Black aged nine and I was also nine. I had been told by my Mum to look after Ethel. Ruth and I were inseparable and none of the ladies were inclined to accept three grubby, tired and fractious kids from Liverpool. A compromise was reached, Ethel and I (my name was Eileen Brown) in one home and my friend Ruth next door.
Ethel and I were bathed and fed and put to bed in separate rooms (for the first time in our lives). I cried myself to sleep.
The lady of the house was very kind but we couldn鈥檛 understand a word she said. I discovered later that we were in a little village in Wales call Waenwawr and next morning we attended Chapel for the first in our lives. It was all very strange and we wanted to go home to our Mum. Dad was away in the Army and it was early 1940.
After three weeks Ethel had settled in very nicely but Ruth and I decided we were fed up with Wales so we鈥檇 run away and go home. After school a few days later we boarded a bus to Caernarfon and stayed on board to the terminus. Entered the caf茅 and had a drink. Our money was disappearing fast and we had no idea where the Railway Station was or the cost of the journey to Liverpool.
A man calling himself Captain Jack sat at our table. He was very friendly and bought us a bun. It was now about 10pm. We were transported back to Waenwawr and so ended our big escape.
That week end to my delight our Mum and Dad, Mrs Black and Uncle Leslie appeared in the village, such joy! Our host provided tea and cakes and later the family prepared to leave. I stood in the front of the door with my arms outstretched and yelled 鈥淵ou are not leaving without me, I don鈥檛 care if I do get bombed鈥�. I think our parents missed us too. Our clothes were hastily packed and we were bundled into Uncle Leslie鈥檚 four-seated car and we drove home to our beloved Liverpool.
When we got home we were delighted to be able to go to the pictures and we saw The Wizard of Oz, and we were able to produce our own show in the air raid shelter.

鈥楾his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his/ her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

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