大象传媒

I was five when war started and lived in Birmingham. I remember that we had an Anderson Shelter in the Garden. We also had chickens which we kept for eggs, and which Dad dealt with for meat. He worked at Cadbury鈥檚 where we helped as a Fire officer. We had a red bell on our landing which would ring if he was needed when off duty.

We had what were called 鈥渟iren suits鈥� to get into when the alarm went off. They were like boiler suits with boots and they were always at the bottom of the bed. Mine had been made by my grandmother from an old red blanket. Anyway, when the alarm went off, my mother would alert both myself and brother and we would get our suits on. One night, I was late getting downstairs and my mother and brother were both in the shelter. I stood in the backdoor and called to see if I was allowed to join them. Because the raid was overhead, my mother considered it to be too dangerous, and I had to wait. I can remember the bangs and flashes. Eventually she called for me to run, which I did, as fast as I could.

My memories are all happy ones. The shelter had bunk beds in and my mother would read us Winnie the Pooh stories. We would then be left there to sleep while mum went back into the house after the all clear. She would wake us each morning with a cup of cocoa and sing us a little rhyme:

鈥淎 birdie with a yellow bill
hopped upon my window sill
cocked his shiny head and said
Ain鈥檛 you shamed you sleepy heads鈥�

In the mornings, before school, we would collect shrapnel. This was done by both boys and girls, and we would see who had got the largest piece of the day.

Actually, my first day of school I wasn鈥檛 allowed to go as it was the day war was declared. We had to go to a lady up the road who taught us there instead.

I used to hate school in the summer because we had to carry our gas mask boxes all the time. I remember that we used to have 2d in them for milk and biscuits.

I can also remember my younger brother in the baby gas mask. These were large things the baby lay inside, and he used to tap on the window.

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