Being a Coventry Kid

This is an account of WW2 memories from my mother,Julie.I have also included some of her quotes as she wrote them.She is recovering from a serious operation,so I some of the information I have noted from her, I hope I can do justice to.
The Suddens family lived in a terraced house in Bristol Road, Earlsdon, Coventry.
When war was declared, my mum was 4years old,and as everyone else, she heard it on the radio.
All the street took delivery of the Anderson shelters, which when fitted into the garden took most of the space up.It could just fit 2 adults and 2 children. All they would take to the shelter was blankets and pillows. She soon got used to being called out of bed at all hours to go into the shelter when the raids first started.
Her dad,was originally a worker at the Armstrong Siddley car factory,based in Much Park Street in Coventry. However at the outbreak of the war, he was transferred to the Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Factory at Baginton, where he worked bulding Spitfires and Hurricanes.He worked 6 days a week,sometimes nights there too.When he was not at the factory he would also be on 'firewatch' with other local volunteers.
Everyone seemed to survive on corned beef and cheese sandwiches!Along with a bit of cold meat on a monday.
The blitz soon came to Coventry as the Germans were determined to destroy Coventry in the hope that they would destroy the manufacturing facilities there.
"We were very lucky, as a bomb dropped on a house opposite us(Broomfield Road),and completely demolished it. All it did to my mum and dads house was blow the windows out"
(note from writer: I remember being in my nan and grandpas back garden when I was little, and they were lucky. the small back garden backed onto a small alleyway, then you had the back garden of the destroyed house. A bit like the coronation street housing you see at the start of the tv soap, for any younger readers!)
The height of the Blitz,brought many worries,so it was decided to evacuate the two girls and their mum to a relation of their mums grandma in Willoughby, Northamptonshire.
They kept in touch with their dad by the occasional letter.Their evacuation only lasted about 4 months,however it was the safest thing they could have done, during a what must have a frightening time especially for someone so young.
The return to Coventry, as the blitz died down,with the air war won, brought back some semblence of a life.However everyday life was a series of highs and lows for everyone.
One paticular day, a German aircraft had been brought down in Spencer Park. By the time mum had got there, all the souveniers had gone!
She went to a school in Centaur Road.The children could a get a lunch, but they had to walk to the British Restaurant, situated at the bottom of Albany Road everyday to get it.
Evenings would be spent, either visting family or friends in the area or staying in practising on an 'old joanna'.
The high point of the week was a Saturday morning, where mum and Pat, would go to the pictures.This was in Gosford Street
"Our weekly trip to the cinema on a Saturday morning was the highlight of the week. We were members of the Gaumont Childrens Club, and sang our Club Song every week!In the interval we had our drinks of homemade lemonade.
We were allowed to use the bus,such as the service was to get home.
The films they would show were 'cowboys and indians', 'westerns' and Tarzan films.We loved the films, even in black and white,and we always knew what was coming on the following week, as they gave us a trailer."
It was at the cinema that pictorial information about the war was broadcast, by means of 'Pathe News'
"We always had the Pathe News to give us the latest news from the war.And how Mr Churchill and his cabinet were getting out and about, boosting morale"
It was not only about boosting the morale of the troops. It was keeping the country as a whole together, united and feeling positive about the outcome of this terrible conflict.
Due to shortages every thing had to be queued for, made or passed down or around to enable as many people as possible to have as reasonable life during those times.
Shopping day was usually a Friday, when they would spend ages queueing for such items as 1/4 of sweets or a 1/4 bacon for the whole family for the week
"Shopping was another job my sister and I did.Queueing for everything, including broken biscuits on a Saturday morning at Mr Peckhams' shop. After that we queued for sausages at the butchers. There was always loads of people waiting with us for the same thing.It was a case of getting there as early as you could"
Clothing was a simple routine of either making what you could,hand me downs or been given the odd item by neighbours who had no further use for them.
"Clothes were always hand me downs and my mother passed on ours to smaller children.
As we were both tall, our mother spent a lot of time making clothes for us. Our school clothes were hand me downs".
Their "best" clothes though used to come out on a Sunday. As it was to church in the morning,for song, prayer and fellowship at the local Methodist Church. In the afternoon it was Sunday School at the local Baptist Church.
Apart from entertaining themselves with the old joanna,seeing friends up at Hersall Common or visting family, the main form of entertainment was of course the radio,listening to programmes like 'Childrens Hour' with Uncle Mac.
This pattern was to continue for the remainder of the war.Father working
day and night either at the factory or on 'firewatch'.The rest of the family, getting by, trying to make ends meet, but always remaining positive.It will end soon, was a familiar thought in the household, shared by everyone else in the country no doubt.
At last it came.An announcement on the radio that the war was finally over.
They all went round to the grandparents house to celebrate.
"Street parties were going on for some days.Each indivdual road had their own, with trestle tables or planks of wood balanced on barrels.We all sat in rows of them.All the mums came and helped,making jellies and sandwiches. A piano was brought into the street.Cakes were made out of anything that was available, which wasn't much.(margarine and dried eggs for example)
My mother even produced some sort of soft chocolate sweet, made out of cocoa,sugar and a drop of milk and were shaped into rounds.She also made 'cinder toffee' which must have been awful for my teeth, oh was it sweet"
This is the story so far. I may be able to get more information as my mum gets better.
The account of events all those years ago seem to show that people everywhere in this country had different levels of contact with the war.Some had far more than their share.
As the war started as in my mums account,Coventry, like other cities became major targets for the luftwaffe. As time progressed, the war progressed to different levels and actions.This affected how people lived. And I sensed from talking to my mum, the way they lived after the Blitz became a way of life. They knew no different and what kept them all going WAS the fact that they had survived, and where there was life, there was always hope for the future.

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