Life as my parents knew it as small children.

As i use this blog as my journal and not so much as a blog i have been meaning for quite a time to start recording memorys of my childhood or stories told to me by my parents and grandparents of there memorys of there childhood. It will come at different times whenever i have time or whenever a memory comes to mind and so might not always been in any correct order. But i though it might be nice to record it before i get too old and forget it all. lol.
These memorys are what most london children were raised to know about during the era i was born into. My parents always would tell my brother and i about being small children in world war 2 and what life was like for them to be small children during that time. Both my parents were around a year old when the war started and both lived in the east end of London which was heavily hit during war time. I will record a story that both of them told me at different times, there were many more but these ones were the ones that i remembered the most from my childhood. My mum was born in Bow, East London on june 18th 1938 so was very young when the war started. For some reason she never did until a year ago admit to me that she had been sent to the country as a baby like other london children to protect them from the bombing. And then she wouldnt tell me anything about it, said she couldnt remember, her sister Joyce told me more about that after her funeral this past jan, i will record Joyces account of that at the end of this post. The story that i always liked to hear when i was a child from her happened when she was around six years old. She would always tell me how lucky we was to be living in a safer time and that we never had to worry about anything when we went to bed or went to school. Her memorys were of going to bed in her home and then in the middle of the night having to be dragged out of her bed, carried thought the house out into the backyard, down into the air raid shelter underground in there backyard and sleeping there till morning. Its hard to imgine isnt it. She often would tell me about her friend who was around 7 years old, i cant remember her name but she would tell me about how they were in a corner store one day, her and her mum and her friend and her mum and the air raid siren went off. They were told to stay in the store. Her friend in a panic ran out and ran across the street onto the other side and my mum watched in horror as a bomb landed near her friend and her friend was killed. My mum told me this story more then once when i was little and i knew it was something that had affected her deeply. Its just hard to imgine in our safe world isnt it? My dads story that sticks out in my mind has more humor in it. He has always told me that as a baby of around 18 months he was shipped out to the country and was there for around four years (like most children were), he was born on feb 21st 1938. The children never saw there families and parents during that time and some children were not treated very well by the families that took care of them. But my dad has no bad memorys of that time. When he came back he was living in stratford east london (where i grew up and where the olympics will be in 2012), he was the 10th child out of 11 but four of his older brothers and sisters had passed away before age 5 due to the hardships in those days that affected small children. His mum was rasing them all alone as his father was away fighting in the war. He says he remembers going to bed in his house and also waking up in the air raid shelter in the backyard but dont always remember the rush to get there, he must have been a deeper sleeper them my mum. lol. He does remember one night that had the whole of london in deep terror. The radio had been full of horror stories about how the germans were planning on landing from airplanes that night and everyone had been told to go into there air raid shelters and stay there and not open them for anyone. Imgine how my poor grandma must have felt all alone with all her kids down in the shelter, terrified that the germans were going to get them? Well unknown to them my grandad had been shifted around and was in fact close by that night. He did something he shouldnt have done and would have gotton in serious trouble for had he been found out. He hadnt seen his wife and kids for almost a year and just wanted to see them and check on them and make sure all was well with them, (no computers, phones or cell phones in those days!!!). So he left his base and went to visit them in the middle of the night. My dad and my grandma told me as a small child how they had heard all day and night about the possible landing of the germans (which never happened luckily) and had stayed awake all night because of it. Imgine there fear when they hear in the middle of the night big heavy feet up above them walking in the yard!! They huddled together terrified as the feet got closer and then started pulling on there shelter door. They must have been totally terrified, and then all of a sudden and i can still hear my grandmas voice saying this.
We heard a voice saying. You down there Rose? And it was the bloody olde man and i wanted to kill em!!!! lol lol.
I always loved that story as a child and would make my dad and grandma tell me it over and over just because i loved to hear it. lol. My grandad did manage to get back without being noticed and was in fact a war hero and recd many war medals inc one of the highest awards you were able to earn during world war 2. My cousin Gary has them to this day. My dad had half and his brother Ted had half and my dad gave his to Ted as he was the oldest brother and then Ted gave them to Gary a few years ago. But i remember always being shown them as a kid and my grandma and dad telling me what they meant. I always knew then how special they was.
Okay the story Joyce my mums sister told me. She told me and my dad in Jan and my dad said he had never heard this and he was married to my mum for 53 years. My mum had been sent to the country when she was 15 months old and returned when she was 5 years old, she didnt see her sisters or parents during that time. Joyce is about five years older then my mum and said that there mum didnt want to send her but people scared her so much telling her that her baby would die if she stayed that she sent her. When she returned she was a very anixous child and was terrified of being alone, she would never talk about her time there and would sneak in Joyces bed in the middle of the night so she wasnt alone. She always refused to talk about her time there so no one really knows much about it but Joyce said it took a long time for my mum to feel secure in there home. My mum always told me as a child that she never was sent away, only my dad was and then like last year when we was at dinner, she told me, Oh no i was sent away too, when i asked her about it, she closed up and said she didnt remember. I guess weve never know what happened to her now. My aunt Joyce told me she would tell me more about my mum as a child when she saw me again and i hope she does.
Anyway thats my first account of old time memorys. I was taught even then to feel so grateful for the time i lived in and never to take what i had for granted. That generation is getting old and wont be here for ever and so i felt it important to write about it so its down in print somewhere. Above is a picture of life during that time and below are some more. Its hard to imgine living with that on your doorstep isnt it?