The Broken Sten Gun

I was evacuated as a baby to Penzance but we went back to Canning Town. The next year we were evacuated again to Morecambe Bay. We were in a boarding house and my mother helped out. We had a Polish airman with us, who made a fuss of me, and gave me presents. I can remember asking Yanks “Got any gum, chum?” There were slot machines on the pier and we boys learned how to fiddle them and make some money, or free goes. My dad’s friend was in the Home Guard, and one day we pinched his Sten gun to play with and broke it. I can still see it lying on the ground broken! The house we left in Canning Town was hit by a bomb the day after we left and our neighbours were killed.
We went out in cockle boats getting cockles on the sand banks. When I was only five I went to the Saturday Cinema on my own — but ran past a door with a swastika on it as I thought there were Germans there who would shoot me.
While I was in Morecambe, I learnt the song "Two Lovely Black Eyes". I remember that I sang this to my neighbours when I returned to Woodford, and that they were all amused by my Lancashire accent.

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