- Contributed by听
- Dr. Colin Pounder
- Location of story:听
- Cotmanhay, Ilkeston, Derbyshire
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A6111893
- Contributed on:听
- 12 October 2005
Dad's Warden's Identity card
鈥淲ill you be alright? I鈥檓 going now then.鈥
I was born on November 14th 1939. You would think that I would have few if any memories of the war but in fact those memories are the most vivid and have stayed with me everyday until now. To try and arrange them in any chronological order is impossible, the memory does not recall things in that way. So, I will begin and whatever follows are, memories called to mind by the ones I am setting down.
I was lying on my Mama Pickering鈥檚 long sofa and was covered with the light brown eiderdown off my large cot. Mam had no doubt come round from next door to stay with her mother overnight. (Both women suffered terrible anxiety.) The door opened and My Dad stood there in his Air Raid Warden鈥檚 dark uniform with his gas mask bag hanging from one shoulder and crossed over his chest was the strap of his St. John鈥檚 First Aid bag. He had on his ARP helmet. 鈥淲ill you be alright? I am going now then鈥 he said.
Dad鈥檚 Warden鈥檚 Identity card.
Under the stairs were kept the spare air raid protection (ARP) materials for this end of Cotmanhay. Stirrup pumps which had to be taken out in the yard from time to time and tried out with a bucket of water using a reel of thick ribbed black hose pipe. Spare `Tin Helmets` actually black painted steel with a white W on the front. Thunderflashes and blue grey cylinders of Smoke Bombs. Small tins with tubes of Gas Ointment `to be put into the eyes`. A gigantic map rolled up on two wooden rollers and a box of card board squares each about a 1/4" x 1/4", some yellow, to mark unexploded bombs, and some red to mark exploded bombs. Usually at week-ends Wardens lifted our dustbins to one side and rolled out the map on the slabs near the coal house. The small squares of cardboard were placed here and there and I would hear, "The army bloke says the ones at the bottom of St. James Avenue wouldn`t have gone off anyway." ..."A good many fell in the Cut near the furnaces".... "Th` farmer asked him what to do cos he was wanting to start getting seed in. The Disposal sergeant said it would be alright. It`s gone deep in soft ground so plough over it and when he`s harvested let them know and they`ll come back and deal with it then".
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