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When I was 8 years old I was evacuated from Birmingham to Halesowen together with my brothers Ted and Dave. They were both billeted together but I stayed with a Mrs Jones.

I didn't like Mrs. Jones because she made me have breakfast outside with the wasps! I don't think she liked me either because her own daughter was at the grammar school and she thought I was a "buck-toothed thickie"! But I did have enough to eat there and a clean bed.

I used to meet Ted and Dave when I could and occasionally they would bring me sweets.

I went to school in Halesowen for three years and it was OK because I made some friends there. The school was next to the Bluebird toffee factory and I will always remember the smell of liquorice!

I remember the drone of the aeroplanes coming low and also the sound of machine-guns shooting at you as you came out of school. We had to carry our gas mask everywhere; we never really used them but we had to practice wearing them anyway.

We had to make sure there wasn't even a glimmer of light getting through the black shutters during the blackout or we would get told off by the warden.

Dad built an air-raid shelter at the bottom of the garden and camouflaged it with garden waste, old coats, and bunk-beds. He was a stoker at a glass-works and also a gardener. He wasn't called-up to serve as he was too old. At 12 years old I remember he won prizes for the Shrewsbury Flower Show. We reared chickens so having enough food was not a problem and we even sold excess food to help out.

After the war ended I remember having treacle for the first time, sweet coupons and bananas on a green ration book. We had street parties and played many games including tic-tac, marbles in the gutter and knocking on people's doors and running away!

The war seems to me like a bad dream and very unreal.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Ros Collin of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mabel Moore and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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