大象传媒

I was five years old at the outbreak of war and can just remember my father coming out to bring me in from play and saying that the war had started.

He had been in the First World War and being a baker by profession, he was in an essential occupation and would not be called up unless things really got bad. He was also a Special Constable in the Bedford Police.

My Aunt who lived with us worked at Allens making shells, and my mother did various things apart from look after all of us.

Memories, as I was so young, tend to be patchy, but it was one of everyone pulling together.

If you were on your way to school and the siren sounded, someone would get you into the nearest shelter. I remember being in the shelter at home with my mother and hearing tiles slide off the roof after a bomb landed on wasteground behind us, and my father poking his head out of the hole the next day holding the shrapnel that had caused the damage.

I remember there being few cars on the road and most things like bread, milk, and coal coming by horse and cart. I remember rationingand standing in queues with my mother and the way that improvisation was used to keep the family fed. I remember the garden turned turned over to the keeping of chickens; the extra eggs very welcome, and the cockerel being the Christmas dinner.

I remember the air raids and seeing the damage, all the troops in the town including the Americans, and the sunday shows at the Granada.

I remember my father coming home redfaced from police duty. He had gone into the Corn Exchange prior to a 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra concert being broadcast. The red light had come on, and he had to sit through the concert and then explain to his sergeant why he was missing for so long.

I remember the flying bombs and being told to run towards it if you were out and one came over. if you ran towards it, it passed over you.

I remember the victory parades and the great sense of relief that it had all ended. Above all, I remember the way everyone pulled together to get through.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.