蜜芽传媒

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A Remembered Childhood.

I buried my head in the coats and trembled with fear. The noise of the engines grew louder and louder.

There was no one there to hear my screams. I was five years old and all the adults were outside .

They were waving to a young pilot who was practising his dive bombing. He flew so low they could see his face.
The villagers raised their hands and made the 鈥榁鈥檚ign, and even although they knew that he could not hear them, they cheered him on. Britain was at war, and war had come to a sleepy little village in Dumfriesshire, called Templand near Lochmaben.
The area was used as training ground for both the R.A.F and troops who were about to be posted overseas. Allied forces from Australia, New Zealand and Canada were also among the many men who past through that little village.
Originally from Edinburgh, the war had dispersed our little group and we were never again to live together. My two older brothers, although still teenagers ,were already servicemen One a Seaforth Highlander had been posted to Shanghia and the other was a Bombardier with the Royal Artillery, They did not come home for a very long time. They were strangers to me.
My two sisters, one six and one ten had been evacuated to Jedburgh and I, the baby of the family, was left alone with my mother. Despite my brothers鈥� protestations, my father a veteran from the WW1, rejoined the army. Fortunately he was never sent overseas. He used to joke that he had spent his time guarding Edinburgh Castle!
Mother soon became very unhappy living in the city on her own. She hated the sirens, was worried for my safety and hated being so far away from my sisters. A relative told her about this little empty cottage in Templand and it seemed like her worries were over.
The cottage certainly was little; it consisted of one room, which I reckon must have been only 12ft wide. There was no electric light or running water and an ancient range provided all there was for cooking and heating. A ramshackle hut out the back housed the dry toilet. I don鈥檛 know how my mother managed. She had left behind a modern house and had been catapulted back a century.
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A Remembered Childhood.
However, all 4鈥�11鈥� of her did cope with the oil lamps, the drawing of water from the village pump and the menacing black range. All the houses were the same, so she felt that if they could cope, so could she.
We were the lucky ones. The village midden was directly opposite our cottage so we didn鈥檛 have far to go to dispose of the necessaries. The village children, having a healthy disregard for hygiene trampled a path through the mass, making it easier for them to reach a little valley beyond. We played there all the time and I don鈥檛 ever remember having any tummy upsets.
I hadn鈥檛 been in Templand long before it was time for me to go to school. My father was home on leave, and as the ground was covered in snow he carried me up the Raw (the street name) and saw me safely inside the playground. Unfortunately for me, he left me there and the local children bullied me mercilessly. I ran back home at lunch time and had to be forcibly returned to school. Thankfully, relief came from the West when a group of Glasgow children were evacuated to the area and the locals had better opposition!
The school consisted of 2 classrooms with a teacher and a Dominie. The school was too small to have classes for each age group and I think the 5-8鈥檚 were in one room and the 9-11鈥檚 in another.
The school building was very old and the only heat came from a coal fire in the corner. Chilblains and red noses were the norm. I grew to love my time at the school and my new country lifestyle.
As I said before, troops were sent to the region for training and this provided the locals with plenty of excitement. Mock battles were fought; troops wore different coloured armbands for identification as they stalked one another round the village. Whenever a group appeared round the side of our house my Mother would ask if they were friend or foe, then irrespective of the answer she would offer them a cup of tea. Mother was very na茂ve, and hoped that somewhere overseas another mother was doing the same thing for her sons. The soldiers were very grateful for her hospitality and one night two young Australians knocked on the door, thrust a dead chicken into her hands and said, 鈥楾hanks, Ma鈥�. No questions were asked!
After a long days march the men would often stop and rest opposite the one and only village shop. This was situated on the main road at the end of the Raw.
A Remembered Childhood
3.

We children would sit and gape as boots and jackets were removed and the men relaxed. We were fascinated by all the accents and enjoyed the good natured banter. One day I was so preoccupied with all that was going on that I did not notice a broken bottle. I attempted to lean back, put my hands behind me and the broken glass punctured my wrist. The blood gushed out like a fountain and I panicked. The nearest Doctor was over two miles away in Lochmaben so the army medics tended to my wound. I was very proud of my khaki bandage and sling. I liked being called 鈥榣ittle soldier鈥�.
Of course we were all still aware that there was a war on and one night the villagers realised that something big was happening. They heard the drone of enemy aircraft in the night sky and decided to congregate on top of a small hillock to watch. Prostrated on the ground they watched as the heavy aircraft fly overhead. The planes were heading for Clydebank. They watched with horror as the night sky lit up .Bombs was being dropped and relatives and friends in Glasgow were under fire. The next morning I was told what had happened and I could see that my Mother was very subdued. She said that she was very glad we lived in a safer area and had no desire to return to the city.
I don鈥檛 know who came up with the idea, but it was suggested that the school put on a concert and we children were to entertain the troops. The money raised was to go to an army benevolent fund.
I was given a red velvet dress to wear and I was in seventh heaven as I had never owned a dress like it. I sang a duet with a little boy from my class. He wore red velvet trousers, which matched his red bow tie. We must have looked very small on that large stage.
We sang an old traditional song called 鈥淭he Keys of Heaven鈥�. Verse by verse the boy proposes to the girl, who stamps her feet in protest and only accepts when he has granted her all her wishes.
At the end of each act, the audience threw money on the stage. I don鈥檛 remember being hit with coins, but I have never been on a stage since!
One terrible summer the floods came. The River Nith burst it banks and all the low lying areas were flooded. We were on higher ground and our house was unaffected, but many people suffered. Remembered Childhood.

The army came to the rescue and using their amphibious vehicles they moved stranded people and animals to safety. Some of the people decided to stay in their houses and I remember seeing them lower baskets down from the upper storey鈥檚 to be filled by their rescuers. A little boy from our school drowned and we were all in a state of shock.
Finally the war ended and we returned to Edinburgh. I hated being back in the city and was very unhappy for a long time. Post war city life was very unpleasant and I became aware of shortages I had never experienced during my time in Templand.
I returned there many years later and discovered that the houses had all been demolished and replaced with prefabs. Only the village school was still standing and of course the memories flooded back. I reckon I was one of the lucky ones, all of my family survived.

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