大象传媒

This story has been entered onto the site by Lauren and Jen on behalf of Charlotte James and they fully understand the conditions.

Charlotte was just eight years old when she and her six and a half year old sister were evacuated from Newcastle to Carlisle. Charlotte had never been on a train before so she was quite happy and excited to be on one for the first time. When they arrived in Smithfield, Carlisle, Charlotte and her sister were separated and the other evacuees were scattered around Carlisle. However, Charlotte kept in touch with her parents by writing to them.

Charlotte was staying in a mansion like house with a teacher who they called Murray, an old man and Murray鈥檚 mother. There were no other children staying with her. Murray used to make clothes for Charlotte and the family was very disciplined. Charlotte wasn鈥檛 very happy because there were no other children in that house and the family were very different from her own. The family she was staying with were quite rich. They had an orchard with fruit trees and Charlotte used to climb the trees and shake the apples off them.

During the day she would attend school which was sometimes only half a day because the people couldn鈥檛 be sure it was safe. The teachers at school weren鈥檛 bad, they weren鈥檛 too strict. After school Charlotte would do her homework then she would play in the fields or in the gypsy caravan that was near by. If she wasn鈥檛 doing this, she would probably be playing with her sister who she often used to visit; her sister lived only a few minutes away from Charlotte.

Another thing she enjoyed doing was having picnics and tea in the fields, as she loved the countryside! The head master of the school Charlotte was attending often used to visit the house she was staying at to use the typewriter because it was the only one in the village. You never knew when there would be an air raid so gas masks always had to be carried; they were kept in a small box on your shoulder. The gas masks were tight and uncomfortable on your face and smelt strongly of rubber.
One day, Charlotte was out at the top of the street playing when an aeroplane flew by. A neighbour shouted over to her telling her that the plane wasn鈥檛 British!

Charlotte and her sister returned home with their parents after a year because Charlotte didn鈥檛 really like being away from home. When she got home, Charlotte saw her baby sister for the first time; she had been born when Charlotte was away. At one point it rained so much that the Anderson shelter was flooded so the family used to shelter under the table. Once Charlotte鈥檚 mother was decorating when everyone else was sheltering and Charlotte and her sister were begging her to shelter with them.

Ration books were issued every month and if the coupons were gone before the end of the month then you just had to cope! Things were so bad that in 1945 when Charlotte was 15 years old, she was working at a butcher shop and they had to sell whale meat because of the food shortage!

Throughout the war Charlotte wasn鈥檛 actually afraid or worried but unlike Charlotte and her family, many people died. The bombed cities and towns had to be rebuilt which took along time.

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