Smells of Dad and pipe tobacco, Maureen Blakey’s Memories of an Evacuee 4

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Rachel Conway from Brighton and has been added to the website on behalf of Maureen Blakey (nee Goodyer) with her permission and they fully understand the site’s terms and conditions.

I was evacuated to Goring-by-Sea in 1939 with my sister. We didn’t receive a very warm reception from our billet who wanted two boy evacuees. I don’t know what happened or was said the day after we arrived, but we did stayed with Mrs News for several months and settled in with the family quite well. They had two children, a boy and girl of their own. Honor and I slept in the same bed, we were used to our own beds at Grandma’s in Tooting. Still I didn’t mind as it was a great comfort to have my big sister near in the strange and new house. School life was fine to begin with as we had our own teachers from London. But one by one they went back, Miss Collis went too and I missed her very much. A few months later we moved quite suddenly to another family with a baby boy. The new family were better off but I didn’t think so! Our room was clean with little furniture, a small set of drawers and two camp beds that weren’t very comfortable to sleep on. They were made of canvas and wood, very low to the floor. We had our meals in the kitchen on our own but we didn’t mind. Sometimes we were allowed in their sitting room, which was lovely and I would play with the baby.

While we were in Goring, Dad used to come down about once a month. Honor and I would run along the bank at the side of the railway when we saw the train. Dad world be waving and we would wave back and try to beat the train into the station. I loved those visits. One time near Christmas time, I was so excited when I saw him I fell down a hole in deep snow! I wasn’t hurt and was soon up and running again. It was wonderful to see him, to hold his hand in mine, to smell his pipe tobacco on him. These were special times for the three of us.

Honor didn’t like our first family and neither did she like the second one. There were times when she would say what she thought — always a strong willed girl but it didn’t go down too well with the new lady. In June 1940 when Honor was 14 years old and had left school she went back to Tooting to go to work. So at six years old I was on my own, with no family to call my own and no big sister. I missed her dreadfully — it was a difficult time and I didn’t like my new home and wasn’t happy.

One day, after Honor had left, I was playing with some other children when I slipped and fell into a little stream, my shoes and socks were wet through. I was scared to go home as the new lady was very strict so I went back to Mrs News and asked if could dry my shoes and socks — I knew that they had a fire with a guard round it. She was very kind to me and said “of course you can”. I told her I wasn’t happy and that I missed my sister. To my surprise she asked if I would like to come back and live with her again. I said I would! This is where I stayed for the rest of the time I was in Goring.

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