大象传媒

My recollection after 60yrs of the Evacuation of myself C.J.A.PETIT, aged 11yrs nine months in June 1940, And the Family and the stay on the Mainland England, during the war years,

Schooling was by catching the only school bus driven by a Mr Priestley, every weekday morning
At EIGHT THIRTY PROMPT, if missed you had five miles to walk, to Sturton-by-Stow school.
The Headmaster must have been well into his Sixties, the assistant teacher came from Grimsby, having Himself been told to evacuate inland with his class, arriving at the Sturton School, and could relate
To our difficulties. Down at home you very seldom saw anyone, I think the Lincolnshire Echo found
Its way once a fortnight. The Hardware dealer, Alf Jubb would come round with his wares, you name it, Almost had it all, paraffin, accumulators, soap, brushes, etc if he didn't have it he would try to get it.
This led to my father talking to Mr Jubb, who besides his hardware shop in Saxilby Village ,had quite
An area of Market Garden, with greenhouses, and a few pigs, who also wanted somone to run the place as
Mr Jubbs son was going off to college, also there was accomodation in an Ex Army hut, which was
Larger and warmer than the cottage, so he took this job, this meant another change of school to
Saxilby ,the only school in the village, but a community of many houses and people, ten miles from
Lincoln. The Headmaster of the school was a Mr Stocks about forty years in age? I was to be in his
Class, at least he knew more about the Channel Isles than many other people, and was very interested.
He was a good teacher with patience, but stern During some evenings he would run the boys club
At which all sorts of card games were played, this took place in the school rooms- the furniture was
Pushed back to have room, small games were played or reduced in size, table tennis, skittles, billiards,
And snooker Which I loved to play, both played on quarter size tables. Saturdays was the day to find
Work for pocket money etc, I managed to get a job at the butchers, this was delivering meat orders to
The customers houses, also to making and putting skins on sausages and the knack of twisting them.
After leaving the school because of my age, I used to still go up to the club in the evenings, other evenings
I would go to a friends house, with whom I had palled up who was older than I, and would play cards
Etc, with his sister and other friends, sometimes we would go to whist or solo whist drives held in the
Halls and places and meeting many of the villagers. The day job was with my Father on the land and in
The greenhouses, up at seven o' clock get the food ready and feed the six to eight pigs and young, clean
The sties and bedding, feed the rabbits, eight or nine some were dutch rabbits the best which were put in Show's, sold or eaten, then either working in the greenhouses, or cultivating the ground with the iron horse Tractor, with which you could plough or scarify etc, or tow a small trailer, with a load on, which was used Often, we having to cross the main road, from the hut and greenhouses up the hill to the other allotment, field With the pigs food etc, if the tractor broke down- by wheelbarrow, then it was sowing, or planting or harvesting The crops, celery, leeks, lettuce, carrots, parsnips, sprouts, onions, strawberries, gooseberries, apples And plums. My Father and Mother, were associated with the village Methodist Chapel, and they were Asked to care for the Chapel ,as cleaners ,and my Father, as a sidesman, for a period of time I was seconded as the Pumper for the bellows of the organ, during different services, but I was not thankful for long hymns.

Cyril Petit

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