´óÏó´«Ã½

The Telegram boy always brings bad news

This story was submitted to the Peoples’ War site by a volunteer on behalf of
Mrs Audrey Harrison and has been added to the site with her permission.
Mrs Harrison fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

My mother felt that the telegram always brought bad news. Early in the war the boy next door had been killed and his family had learnt by telegram.

Thereafter my mother who had two sons in the RAF, one of whom was flying, couldn’t bear the sound of our front door bell, which was very strident. So she wrapped it in cloth to dampen the sound.

Sometimes there was good news — usually to say that my brothers were coming home on leave and we would be seeing them

One of my other memories is collecting sphagnum moss, when we were living in North Wales, where my mother had decided it was safer to live. The moss was used for bandages and collected and delivered to British hospitals. I remember collecting it to earn my war service badge in the guides.

Sometimes there were very social times. In our neighbourhood there were some very social air raid shelters — people would be invited along for an evening in the air raid shelter.

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