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This story was submitted to the Peoples site by Angela Triggs of CSV Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of John Pateman and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Tredegar had its own railway station at the time and word got around amongst all the children there was a troup train in the station with American troops on board. We all went down to the station and were handed sweets and chewing gum - what they termed as 'candy'. It was the first time I had ever seen a black person.

Sometime later my father took me by bus to see his parents who lived in Barry. On the way back the bus was very crowded and there was a black American soldier and his Welsh girlfriend sitting down and I remember sitting on the soldier's lap.

The fact that there was no TV and of course radio doesn't paint pictures of colour, and though we knew American were fighting in the war, but I'm not sure that, at the time, I realised that negros were part of Amercian society. In school, until you got to 11 and were introduced to History, you remained ignorant of such things.

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