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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roland Gardner from Sidley On Line Centre, and has been added to the website on behalf of Joyce Hammond with her permission, and she fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

A STAR IS BORN

Like all communities up and down the Country, we had a big street party to celebrate VE Day.

It was held in Quebec Road, Hollington, which is a suburb of Hastings, and we had to take with us a chair, which had our name written on the bottom. I was just nine years old and had never had such a wonderful day. Games, races, and then a sumptuous tea — where did the mums find the food? I suspect that more than one wartime recipe was utilised.

In the evening the adults joined in and we, the children, had to provide the entertainment. I was a star in waiting, and when it was my turn, I was asked what I wanted to sing. “How did you ever become a sergeant?” I said. It was a song that my elder brothers had taught me, and I suspect that the army version was a bit earthier than the version they passed to me. Not surprisingly, the song was unknown to the civilian pianist, so I had to sing it unaccompanied.

How did you ever become a Sergeant?
Where did you get those stripes?
It’s a mystery I declare,
Did you earn them on the square?
Or pinch them when the Quartermaster
Wasn’t looking there.

In the Boys’ Brigade you were never on parade,
You had to have your morning cup of tea,
How did you ever become a Sergeant?
It’s a blinking mystery.

Naturally, I won first prize, half-a-crown, and from there my glittering career took off.
Even from my present exalted position (housewife) I remember with great fondness that momentous day when, a ‘Star was Born.’

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