大象传媒

I was born in Barnsley in 1941.
My mother had walked there from Sheffield where she had spent the night in an air raid shelter during the bombing.She had emerged to find the house damaged,no gas,no electricity,no water,so she returned,walking, to her parents house,and never went back.
As the war and rationing were all in place when I was born,I don't remember much about them,but a very vivid memory was of going into the town centre with my mother,my aunt,(her sister) and my cousin David who was only 3, to celebrate VE day.
It was at night; Barnsley Town hall which is an imposing building, was all lit up,I had only experienced black out up to then.
I was astonished! There was a parade of people in fancy dress,and I remember a man with a black mask riding past on a horse.
My little cousin started to cry and our mothers decided to take us home.I was furious!
I still remember the shells of bombed out buildings in Sheffield city centre,it must have been some years before they were rebuilt.
I also remember that we used to go somewhere near Ingbirchworth on the moors,and for miles,there were pyramid shaped piles of shells or bombs on the grass verges,uniformly spaced out I suppose, so that they couldn't all be blown up at once by a stray bomb.

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