大象传媒

My Dad was called up to serve in the forces but was not fit for active duty. He was billeted with my grandparents and mum in Bradford and worked in the Pay Corps. A fondness grew up between him and Mum and, one night, when my grandparents went out, I was conceived. Not knowing she was pregnant, Mum joined the Land Army (probably her parents idea to separate her from my dad). She requested "Care of Livestock" but was given "Rat catching" in Devon.

While rat catching, she discovered she was pregnant and came home for the birth. Twice while pregnant she was caught outside in an airraid, once because she had been in the cinema where nobody had heard the warning. When she got home, her mother clouted her. I should have been born in a home for unmarried mothers but my mum got frightened and ran away back home, so the midwife came to my grandparents' house for the birth. As I was born with persistent hiccoughs, she gave me a drop of Grandma's brandy!

As we lived near the Leeds/Bradford gasworks, the airraids continued so we constantly had to flee to the shelter. I do not consciously remember the airraids but the anguish of it all has been inscribed in my subconscious memory. The noise of aircraft and the sound of a siren still brings this anguish flooding to the surface.

I do remember going to the grocers with ration coupons and not being allowed to change grocers until we started a new book. When the coupons stopped, I was given money to go get sweets but, of course, I did not know what they were and came back with old ladies' sweets! This may be partly why I still have my own teeth at age 60!

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