Yes we have no bananas

I was six years old when war broke out, but I remember certain things, waving to the soldiers on their way to the ships to take them across to France, people throwing them bags of food and ciggies etc.
I used to help camouflage the guns which were in the forest at Whipps Cross. I remember the barrage balloons floating in the sky and watching the dog fights between the Germans and our lads.
I used to get upset going to school and seeing empty seats where my friends should be as they had been killed in the night time raid.
My brother, who was 10 years old, ran away to try and get on a ship and join the war.
He was caught in the docks after he had hung to the underneath of a lorry. The police came round to speak to my parent's as they were worried about how he got through check-points! He did this more than once! Our Grandfather was an officer on HMS Lion in First War and he badly wanted to go to sea.
My Father came from Plymouth and was unable to fight due to TB, he joined the Home Guard and helped check blackout curtains and put out small fires etc.
My Mother worked in a handbag shop in Walthamstow Market and one day whilst going to pick up my next Blyton book, a German plane started firing overhead. My Mother threw me to the ground with herself on top to protect me.
The handbag shop was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Freeman, who were Jewish. I used to go there after school for tea and on Friday share their special meal with them. If there was a raid, which was often, they would put me under the counter.
One day I met two Jewish boys in the shop who were about 16. They had escaped from Poland. One of them, William had seen his Father and Brother shot and his last sighting of his Mother was at the door shouting for him to run.
I remember sitting on the lap of a young airman, the son of Mrs. Walbert, he was later killed in the Battle of Britain.
A sailor who lived up the road from us, came home on leave to find his whole family had been killed the night before. The shelter they were in had received a direct hit.
I had two kittens, who before we heard the sirens would run and hide under the hood of my dolls pram.
The flying bombs were something to watch with the flames coming out the back, then the engine would cut and the flames would stop and it would drop like a stone.
These were deadly, often destroying whole roads of houses.
Sometimes, when we were at the pictures, the sirens would go. Although we could leave we always stayed to the end as we had paid our money and believed if our time was up it was up where ever we were!
I was sent away with my brother and the other London children to be evacuated to safer parts of the country.
We were sent to Baildon in Yorkshire.
It was horrible. The lady gave our rations to her son, forced us to eat outside and took away my shoes. When I was ill and wet the bed, she made me wash them. When her Husband came back from his job that kept him away a lot he had a row with her and how she was treating us. My Mother picked us up and we went to another place. My brother stayed with the Mayor, Mr.Knight and I stayed with his sister. My Father died when we were with them and he wanted to keep us there. My Mother took us back to London.
Shernhall Street in Walthamstow where we lived had been badly hit.
We used to collect bits of metal for the war effort.
My Mother was a brilliant cook and always fed us well despite living on rations. She often went without to make sure we were o.k.
My brother used to try and get rabbits from Epping Forest, so sometimes we had that.
My Uncle served in Egypt and bought back a banana. I took it to school and the teacher cut it up and shared it with the class.
After the war we saw young German lads building Prefabs. The man in charge of them said they hadn't wanted to fight but had to and they didn't like Hitler. My Mother gave them hot drinks in the cold weather. They put a big sign on the blocks saying WE LOVE YOU - THANK-YOU.
I could see the sign from the upstairs window.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.