Author Topic: Evacuee  (Read 1259 times)

Audrine

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Evacuee
« on: Feb 22, 2020, 05:57:26 PM »
My older brother & me were evacuated to Wisbech, Cambridge, I was only five years old & much too young to remember much about it except it was not a happy time.
The family who took us  in were not kind. Among other mean things they did, whatever my Mum sent my brother & me they would keep for themselves.
I think it was a law at the time, Wartime  but in my opinion a very stupid one. Audrine

sparky

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Re: Evacuee
« Reply #1 on: Feb 22, 2020, 06:21:09 PM »
Me, my mate, and his sister, agreed to go  quite late in the war, only because we thought it would be a bit of an adventure, ended up at  Southport  with a quite nice family , I got a job with in a small grocery shop, delivering customers orders, I was a right little Granville as in "Open all Hours" complete with the bike with a delivery bike like his, anyway  soon found it was not much of an adventure, and came home, just as the V1s   "Flying bombs" started, never went back to school, got a job near Liverpool street station in London.

Yellowbird

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Re: Evacuee
« Reply #2 on: Feb 22, 2020, 10:33:07 PM »
We lived in a relatively safe area so had to have evacuees in the War, we had a girl called Patricia to stay from London, her brother was evacuated with another family down the road, they were quite young, it must have been terrifying I often wonder what happened to them when they went home. Later we had a cousin to stay. We had large attics in our house and had several Canadian soldiers billeted  in them they would bring Mum precious pats of butter hidden in their helmets .  We never heard what happened to them when they went to the front. We also had Gran to stay, she lived in London, my Aunt who lived with her stayed on throughout the War in London and was a Warden, I believe she saw terrible sights. There are so many memories from that time. Although I was very young I still remember quite a lot of Life in the War. Everyone looked out for their neighbours in those days.
Born sceptic grown even more sceptic sadly

firenze

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Re: Evacuee
« Reply #3 on: Feb 22, 2020, 10:45:11 PM »
Yellowbird, you match my thoughts today, I was telling my weekender visiting son why some long huts were there near the cliffs we visited today to watch some seabirds and their nesting area. The huts are a remnant of the war and were used to house children from the Continent.
Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain.

Yellowbird

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Re: Evacuee
« Reply #4 on: Feb 23, 2020, 07:25:21 AM »
You must be around my age group Firenze if you remember the war. Although our parents must have been worried trying to feed us with rationing and keep us safe, I remember it as a happy time where everyone looked after each other, not much hate like there seems today. Except the enemy  of cause, although they seemed rather remote to a small child
Born sceptic grown even more sceptic sadly

sparky

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Re: Evacuee
« Reply #5 on: Feb 23, 2020, 08:22:33 AM »
Everyone looked out for their neighbours in those days.


Yeah, that was in the days  when Londoners did not need an interpreter to converse with their neighbours,


firenze

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Re: Evacuee
« Reply #6 on: Feb 23, 2020, 08:20:36 PM »
Yellowbird I'm no spring chicken😄 I was old enough to remember the confusion at being bundled out of bed into what I thought was a shed whilst fireworks were
let off! 
Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain.

Yellowbird

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Re: Evacuee
« Reply #7 on: Feb 25, 2020, 05:42:34 PM »
We were very fortunate very few bombs came our way, a German plane did land here, all airman were killed. They are buried somewhere in our local cemetery. Seemed such a sad waste of all  those young men, friend or foe.
Born sceptic grown even more sceptic sadly

Johned

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Re: Evacuee
« Reply #8 on: Feb 29, 2020, 06:44:39 PM »
At our elementary school, a rather quiet lad of about nine years of age appeared one morning who told us he had come with his mother to live somewhere quiet. Hardly an evacuee but nevertheless some family uprooted by the war.  On enquiring the whereabouts of his dad, he replied he was an army General.  This information was greeted by us working class kids with utter derision; an army General indeed!  However, he had the last laugh.  A couple of Sunday mornings later in church, there sat the lad, his mum and a very finely turned out and accoutred Major General, his dad.  A few days later, our new friend departed and was seen no more.  Another wartime ship that passed in the night!