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This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Nottingham on behalf of Mrs Blanche Spencer with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

At the beginning of the war we were part of the Salvation Army in New Basford. We were teenagers. The men in our group were having to go away to fight in the war so the band decided to teach us girls how to play the instruments so that while they were gone the band could continue. So we had to learn quickly, we practiced a lot - I bet the neighbours were fed up with it.
We got really good and we went all over the country playing which was great. One time we were somewhere for the week and we got real eggs for our dinner - that was a treat.
We then in turn taught the young boys how to play the instruments as well and they played too.
We also had to do fire watch at night at the hall. The night when Nottingham got bombed 2 of us were in the hall and the cupboards were shaking — so were we. One of our fathers came along and he said no way we were staying there and he took us off home safely.

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