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 as quickly as possible. Next minute a German Fighter plane flew over us firing at the soldier who fired back, and one of the plane’s bullets went into the ground near me.
Food & eating
We got a very small ration of Butter to eat, so my mother always put the Butter with Margarine and you had to draw your Knife across them both when you spread them on your bread so that we all had a fair share. If I had a boiled egg, my mother insisted that I ate at least three slices of bread with it, and the result is that now at the age of 67 I still eat lots of bread with a boiled egg and think that anyone who eats no bread is really piggy. I can remember eggs preserved in Isinglass in a bucket and they often went musty and tasted horrible. There was also powdered egg which if you mixed it up with milk and cooked it could come out a bit like scrambled egg.
We of course had no Bananas or Oranges and I had no idea what a Banana looked like. I saw a boy eating something that looked like a slug, once, and he told me it was a Banana, but it was a dehydrated one, hence its appearance. There was very little meat around, so we often ate rabbit that the local poacher had caught. We only ever had chicken on very special times, at Christmas and sometimes at Easter. Chicken was a real treat.
I remember being utterly amazed when sugar rationing was removed after the War at the concept that all you needed to buy as many sweets as you wanted was the necessary money.
Toys & Books
All manufacturing was directed to the war effort, so there were no toys, games or books on sale for children. I remember my father proudly presenting me with a second hand Meccano set that he had bought and painted, as a Christmas present. He also gave me a really large wooden model of a German Tank that had been used for recognition purposes by the Home Guard. I really treasured that tank. We mainly found our own toys. I remember finding an old motorcycle fire extinguisher which I could fill with water and squirt. Hours of mischievous fun.