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19/08/2003

MY WAR TIME MEMORIES

I was born in Billesley Birmingham in 1936, I was only three years old when the war started,. As the crow flies we lived not far from some of the ammunition factories. B, S, A Lucas, Rover, Singer, Wilmot and Breadon's and a few more i can't remember.

We were a poor family, my Mum had six children in ten years; most of the families around us were poor. As children we were not aware of it, only as you get older do you become aware that all your clothes come from the rag market, We used to go into town (B’ham) late afternoon because the traders use to sell the goods very cheap or if you were lucky they gave it away.
My earliest war memory is my little brother David screaming when my Mum tried to put him in the baby gas mask. Air raid shelters were to bother me for years to come, as for some reason my mind linked them with thunder, it was only years later that I learned it was from the sound of bombs when I was in the shelter and my child mind linked it with thunder.

We spent many a night in the Anderson shelter in our garden. At school, the sirens would go and we all lined up and marched to the shelters in the playground. It was a bit scary for us kids but we did not mind, as we knew we would have no lessons, our teacher would tell us stories and read us poetry. We did not have stories at home and I could not read I have loved listening to people reading poems and stories all my life. We had tape criss -. Crossed on all the windows at school.

My Aunties shelter in Sheldon was different to ours in Billesley, many times I have gone to bed only to wake up in the shelter. Aunt’s was a big communal shelter, it was up the road and into a field, ours at home was half buried in the ground and had six bunks in it. Aunty Flo’s was a big brick one like a very large garage a lot of people used it. Some time we would just go to the bungalow across the road and my cousins and me would sleep under the big kitchen table, Uncle Bert said it was safer there as it was built of stone. The big Rover factory was just down the road and the airport was not far away so the sirens went a lot. Also we were very near Coventry. My brothers and me had a lot of fun as we stayed up late, when Dad was on fire duty, my brothers were older than me and I was a look out for them when they went scrumping for apples.
Later we used the air raid shelter more for playing on and in, we would stand on the top when it was dark and watch the planes in the search lights dropping there bombs on the factories. My brothers made it sound exiting so I was not as frightened out side as I was in the shelter.

Rations

I remember my Mom selling our sugar and bacon to the lady who lived at the back of us. With the money she would send one of us kids to the shop and by her woodbines cigarettes the shop would split a packet and you could by one or two if you could not afford more. We always asked for best butter I wonder why it was called that? We had a slice of bread and jam for breakfast and tea if Mum had any money. I can remember going to the off licence with a jug to get beer for my granddad I was only little I had a job to carry the beer back from the off licence with spilling it. As soon as I went in the house granddad would get a red hot poker and put it straight into the jug of beer I can still remember the smell. Mum would put me in a queue at the shops and Mum would stand in another queue I was always frightened that she would not get back to me in time as most of the time I did not know what I was queuing for. She would send me and my little brother down to the butchers and if A, B, C D was on the window our Name was Deeks, we would have to queue for whatever offal the butcher had. Most of the time we had no money with us and we put the offal on tick. Every Sunday Mum would make dad an egg custard in a cup with a crack in it and me and my brothers would fight to dip the bread in the gravy juice, as it was the only day we had a joint.

At school I had to line up with about six other pupils in front of the teacher and the class, to have cod liver oil and malt we were classed as under privileged children we also had free school meals, I had free clothes from the Birmingham Mail fund and we had bright red long wool stockings with a red pleated skirt and jumper they made me itch, also a pair of black laced up shoes with B/M stamped into them we spent ages trying to scrape of the initialled as we were so ashamed of them and everyone knew we were poor. I was also made to drink two bottles of milk every morning by the teacher, it used to make me feel sick it had a lot of cream on top and with it standing out in the playground when it was delivered in the early morning the cream was turning sour. At home we had sterilised CO-OP milk it did not have cream on it. To this day I can’t drink a glass of milk and I don’t have it in tea.

Memories
Standing by the window watching the bombed buildings burning the sky bright red, the airplanes attacking the factories. Low flying barrage balloons. Gas omitors going up and down. It was years before I leant that the barrage balloons did not take all the gas from the gas ometers to stop them from blowing up. To me every time the balloons went up, the gas ometers went down. Well I was only little! Lying in bed listening to the planes passing over, were they Germans or ours? My brothers could tell the different sounds that the planes made.

Playing on the bombsites and the flowers that grew there, Golden Rod, Snow on the Mountain, Coltsfoot, always the first flower after the winter, Creeping Jenny, it grew all over the shelters. Collecting shrapnel for my brothers to swap. Keeping chickens in the garden, we never ate our own chickens dad told me they were Mr Lacey’s our next door neighbour, oh the trust I put in my dad.

Did we always have good weather in the war? Hours spent playing games skipping, ball games, leapfrog, whip and top, and hundreds more always singing to the games we played. I can never remember being bored, my dolls pram was an apple box with some string tied to it; poor yes, but never bored,

The most exiting, it must be the shops lighting up for the first time. Dad took us all up to town to see them. It was my first time to see lights in shop windows, and then to see all the trams lit up like they do at Blackpool today. That was magic.

Going with my granddad to the allotment Granddad only had one leg he lost it in the First World War he was a despatch rider. He always carried a stool with him, and would sit to do all the gardening he always gave me some vegetables and flowers to take home for Mum, I would sit by him and he would tell me about growing the flowers and vegetables, I loved these times as there was so many of us at home, it was nice to have granddad to myself.

SAD TIMES.

Two streets away from us a pair of semi’s was bombed and both family’s died; the children came to our school. Then Arthur who lived in our grove was killed in action and his family was very upset, we all felt very sad for them, Katherine and Margaret his sister’s were my friends.

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