14) Extra Work

Every day we had to do extra work in between two and three o’clock, and the work was all allocated out to us — sometimes it was cleaning out the side of lockers, sometimes it was washing the tiles in the sluice or the bathroom — other times it was polishing some of the sterilisers, not all of them — they were a sort of copper and we had to polish those. Also there were brass plates around some of the beds and we had to polish them. I didn’t like that very much because the metal polish got stuck in the lettering, and I had an awful job getting it out — and I knew that I’d be told off if it wasn’t right. I was moaning about this to my Dad, and he said “Oh you want to get a toothbrush, and do it with a toothbrush”. So a toothbrush I got, and used that and it was much much easier. It got it all out!

Sometimes it was very, very cold on the sluices, and I used to wish I was at home, and when I was cleaning the tiles, particularly I remember in one sluice I used to think of my Mom sitting in front of a roaring fire in Shrewsbury, and I used to think “I wish I was there”. Anyway, I got on with it, and that was it.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Becky Barugh of the BBC Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Patricia Davies and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Pat's stories:

• 1) I suppose it was inevitable…
• 2) Getting used to being on the wards
• 3) The unchanging rota
• 4) Othopaedic Wards
• 5) The Miners
• 6) Keeping coffee warm in the sterilizer
• 7) Mouth gags and tongue clips
• 8) Dear Flower Girl
• 9) Theatres
• 10) The Nurse’s Home
• 11) The ‘Guinea Pig Club’
• 12) Mice in the washing and other tricks
• 13) Enamel washbowls on your heads
• 15) Shake and Shake…
• 16) Little Nurse
• 17) A lot of things were introduced during the War
• 18) Only two nights off
• 19) Making and Breaking
• 20) My little bucket and I
• My visit to post-War Germany

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