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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Rebecca Hood of the People's War Team on behalf of Gillian Rees and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born in 1938…. So I progressed from one of the incubators to a mickey mouse gas mask — I don’t remember the others, the more advanced ones. I do remember the rationing and the points system. I remember, too, Saturday mornings in Carmarthenshire - when my mother would go the market, because it was a country area, and you could buy things like butter and so forth. But it was all black market so you didn’t talk about it! She would then walk up to some farms around there and she would collect things like eggs and butter to send to my father who was away in the forces. And then we’d have pans around the house, full of eggs being preserved and we had an allotment.

My mother had to go back teaching, because they needed teachers. (She was grateful for that because she’d had to give up teaching when she got married.) And we had this allotment - everyone had to have an allotment - but what did she do with me? She put me on top of the rubbish and they all dug around!…All the children of the street were put on top of the rubbish and then they’d dig around and obviously gather all the vegetables and things. And because she was teaching, because she had a small child, she didn’t have the young evacuees billetted. Instead she had a gentleman from what we’d call the Secret Service, now I believe. He was an undercover agent, who came from Scotland, and whose name was Jimmy Frazer. And Jimmy Frazer was a very quiet gentleman …who spent all his day reading…and in the night he would mysteriously disappear to Trevaughan Woods where they’d have secret meetings.

We believe there were underground caves where things were kept paintings, jewels and all sorts of things….from London..kept underground — because we were regarded as a safe area — so safe that we were bombed several times.

We had two American bases …and the Americans were very generous to us, very kind I must say. They gave us lots of things, candies, film shows, introduced us to Mickey Mouse, and I was given a box along with all the other children, from South Dakota, from the children there, to say we’re sorry you’re in this predicament. And I opened the box and there were lots of things in red white and blue because we shared the colours obviously…. We had pencils and tops and yo-yos…you name it. My mother wouldn’t let me touch it, she said “now you keep that” — and I’ve treasured it all these years…and last year I went to America for the first time and I went to South Dakota and I thought “Well, I’ve got to say thank you”…so I asked the manager of the hotel if he could take a little note from me just to say “Thank you very much…it’s taken sixty years but I’m grateful”. He said “would you write a long letter to the children?” So I wrote a long letter and explained what Wales was all about and what it concerned…and I didn’t think any more of it…I got back to this country and the Governor of South Dakota wrote to me and said “Thank you so much, would you keep in touch” so I’m now in touch with the children of South Dakota, telling them about Wales and so it’s reciprocated.

I went to school when I was three…because my mother went back teaching, she was given the privilege of taking me to school as well. My mother had infants and she had class size of 100 and it was an old church school and I would say the room she taught in was a very, very small room. But of course children didn’t move, they didn’t speak, you didn’t say anything, you just did things by rote. And then you progressed into the other room and because it was a very old school, it was one of those 19th century schools where the desks went up one side and the other the head mistress sat in the middle. You couldn’t hear not a sound, but children really, apart from the games they played, there wasn’t any problem. We played aeroplanes tho, I remember that quite distinctly, and I suppose really these were all kind of wartime games, and I remember vague things about that…but there were no problems at all. We were not aware there was anything wrong because we led a very sheltered life. We had no sweets…I remember my mother queueing for a banana and then watched my face and I thought “this is the most awful thing I’ve ever tasted in my life” It was horrible. I remember when sweets came off — I was 15 — and I saved my money and was given some points to buy my mother a box of chocolates and that was it. But you didn’t miss what you didn’t have. I remember looking at some of the lovely magazines my mother had from before the war with boxes of chocolates…and you could have drawers that you could open and chocolates in layers — I’d never seen anything like that in my life. You had to go to one particular shop to buy all your groceries ….you went in and you had to give your points, and they’d cross of the points — and then money was put in the till…and it was in those days with the overhead. The tills were at one end and you had the overhead system - I think we fared quite well.

We had a few bombs dropped in our area….but we were alright.

The best thing was how people pulled together….When people came back after being in the war there were cheers…people would come out and cheer….and we were a quiet little avenue, not a busy street. Everyone would cheer them. And when Swansea was bombed and flattened …and the men came back after fighting through the night, and all the stray children who were found in the debris were brought back…again, tremendous homecoming. And I remember going with my mother, because we had one lad called Oliver Davies and he was shot down overseas…and nobody said anything…you just quietly went to the house and all sat there just right around the room just to show there was solidarity and we understood what she was going through. I think you took things as they came….you expected people to die. There was great excitement in school if any of the parents came home on leave because they would bring foreign dolls or something like that — some little trinket….So of course you’d be the centre of attention for the day then, you can imagine.

There was excitement around VE Day….. There was excitement in the market in the morning, where people were buying things ….now they came out no Black Market ….everything came out….all the rations came out, all the jellies and things that had been secreted away…all the tables came out, right down the street. — of course you didn’t have to worry about traffic cos there weren’t any cars, in fact the only people who had cars were taboo — they were using petrol! They shouldn’t have a car that was naughty. So we had all these tables and all the children came out….and it was a party for the children …I think. And it was lovely…I learnt to dance….and we saw a bonfire for the first time. Because we hadn’t seen fire or anything like that except for the day my father accidentally set fire to the hedge. He’d been burning something in the garden and I think one of the little things had caught in the hedge…and all the neighbours came out to put it out. Good God if there was a fire in the night imagine what could happen.

The little flags….we didn’t have any bunting …but there was food. And we had a lot of Dutch children with us …..and the children who came down from Sandwich and we all joined forces. Mind you I think some of the Dutch children had a very rough time…because the main language in my area was Welsh — they couldn’t speak English — there was no common parlance so to speak …and they were viewed with suspicion. They were foreign in any case …so I think they had a bit of a rough time. I can remember some of the boys bullying the little ones who came over….but they fought back and it ended quite peacefully.

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