大象传媒

As we knew the war in Europe was ending, we read in the papers that Churchill was going to announce when we could light the celebration bonfires. During the war any fires or bonfires were strictly banned so it seemed a very unusual idea to us that we could actually have a bonfire. We knew that we had to wait for Churchill's radio announcement that we could light the fires, but we didn't have a radio, our neighbour Mrs Marston did have one, and she agreed that as soon as she heard she would shout and let us know, which she did.
We only made a very tiny fire on a bombsite
on the Foleshill Road, next to the William
Pub. We lit the fire, and kept feeding it with sticks from the bombsites, and people in the street all came out and helped us make it bigger, I was 9 at the time and I
was very exited, all the neighbourhood was out and celebrating!
All the soldiers came out of the pubs nearby and joined in, Americans, English,
Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders,
South Africans and some Poles. The soldiers picked us up and put us on their shoulders, one Australian picked me up and gave me his cap badge. Every child in the country wanted an Australian cap badge, because they were the biggest. That night I got may badges from all these soldiers.
The party went on till 5am, we kept the bonfire going for 5 days. Coventry deserved to celebrate!!

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