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"This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from newcastlecsv on behalf of Mrs Eileen Woods [name of contributor/author] and has been added to the site with her permission. Eileen Woods fully understands the site's terms and conditions".

I started school in 1940 and there were Air Raids with sirens going off at the beginning and end of it. People got used to them, even young children got used to being bundled up (to keep them warm), and then being taken into the Air Raid shelter in the night. It became quite normal. Ours was an Anderson shelter and it was in our back garden. We went out of the back door and down a step onto the path, then down several steps into the shelter. It had bunk beds times two, and a Hurricane lamp and we had to wait in there until the “ALL CLEAR”.

It was quite a surprise when I started the village school, to be shown a big air raid shelter there and to be told what to do by the teachers. “If the Air Raid Warning comes on go immediately to the shelter and stay there until the “ALL CLEAR”.

One afternoon, going back to school after dinner, the Air Raid Warning came on. I was just at the cobbled alleyway into the school (Norton Board School, in the High Street), when the siren went. I walked to the air raid shelter by myself, other children were already there, but no teachers. We sang “Roll out the Barrel”, Ten Green Bottles, and other songs until the “ALL CLEAR” was heard. After the All Clear, the headmistress, and other teachers came and told us we were very good children to have taken ourselves into the shelters.

The funny thing is that I wasn’t frightened and the other children didn’t seem to be, we just had a sing-song to take up the time. This is the only time that I recall a daylight raid in our area.

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