Memories of a War Time BoyLife ExperiencesI personally was not an Evacuee as I travelled into the country for safety

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Memories of a War Time Boy

Life Experiences

I personally was not an Evacuee as I travelled into the country for safety with my parents, but we did have a boy of my age sent to us who came from Mitcham. He didn’t stay with us for long because he was home sick and my mother was not happy with him, but we subsequently had a girl to stay for over a year who was the daughter of a friend of my aunty. Her Dad died in the War and so her Mum had to go out to work, plus the area in which she lived was likely to be bombed (close to Ford’s factory making Tanks)

At night, when the air-raid sirens went I had to get out of bed and hide in the wardrobe until the All Clear in case the little house we lived in got bombed. As a result, I often used to dream that German Paratroopers were climbing in my bedroom window. The little house had no Electricity or Gas, so at night we had Aladdin Paraffin lamps to see by which had a mantle that glowed brightly, and my mother had to cook on a Kitchen Range fuelled by Coal.

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The village school that I went to had only three classes, one for infants, one for 7-10 year olds and the third 10-14. As a nine year old I can remember teaching the older children Long Division which didn’t make for great popularity! One of the things everyone had to learn was how to knit, which as a boy I hated.

We had lots of Soldiers camping in the park at the top of the hill, and one day whilst I was playing outside there was a sudden shout from the sentry who told me to run in the woods ...

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