大象传媒

When I was 8 years old I was evacuated from Birmingham to Halesowen together with my brothers Ted and Dave. They were both billeted together but I stayed with a Mrs Jones.

I didn't like Mrs. Jones because she made me have breakfast outside with the wasps! I don't think she liked me either because her own daughter was at the grammar school and she thought I was a "buck-toothed thickie"! But I did have enough to eat there and a clean bed.

I used to meet Ted and Dave when I could and occasionally they would bring me sweets.

I went to school in Halesowen for three years and it was OK because I made some friends there. The school was next to the Bluebird toffee factory and I will always remember the smell of liquorice!

I remember the drone of the aeroplanes coming low and also the sound of machine-guns shooting at you as you came out of school. We had to carry our gas mask everywhere; we never really used them but we had to practice wearing them anyway.

We had to make sure there wasn't even a glimmer of light getting through the black shutters during the blackout or we would get told off by the warden.

Dad built an air-raid shelter at the bottom of the garden and camouflaged it with garden waste, old coats, and bunk-beds. He was a stoker at a glass-works and also a gardener. He wasn't called-up to serve as he was too old. At 12 years old I remember he won prizes for the Shrewsbury Flower Show. We reared chickens so having enough food was not a problem and we even sold excess food to help out.

After the war ended I remember having treacle for the first time, sweet coupons and bananas on a green ration book. We had street parties and played many games including tic-tac, marbles in the gutter and knocking on people's doors and running away!

The war seems to me like a bad dream and very unreal.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Ros Collin of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mabel Moore and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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