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Pat Wright

When I was 20 months old we were evacuated to St. Neots from Bermondsey in London, my mother and myself along with my auntie, grandfather and grandmother.

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My aunt had been wounded in one of the first bombings in London, she had been scalped. She was stitched up and sent home. My uncle, her husband, had been killed. All they found of him was his shoe with his foot in it and this is what got buried. Luckily, at 20 months I knew nothing of this. My first recollections were of a house running alive with rats and mice, and heaps of cats and dogs to keep the vermin down.  Bath time was a little unusual for me. We had a brick copper in the outhouse and Mum used to light the fire, having filled the copper with water. When it reached a certain temperature, I was put into it and bathed. She always got me out before it got too hot. Did anybody else have this kind of unusual bathtime?

I was an only child and spent the first years until I was 6 running wild in the fields and climbing trees. I lived a free life. I got up in the morning and would make for the fields. My poor mother was in despair, as soon as I could, my shoes came off and I ran around barefooted. The fields of corn and barley stretched over my head. It always seemed to be so sunny. It seemed there was no room at the school - St Neots school for the evacuees. Until I was six or seven I taught myself to read and write with help from my Aunt Mary. The trouble was I taught myself to read and did it phonetically - Izland instead of sounding iland etc. This caused great hilarity in the classroom, and I withdrew into myself, relying on my animal friends.

I had my own hen called Hester who used to lay an egg on my bed and cluck loudly until it was rescued for my tea. Mum used to be terrified that we were getting too much rations over this and the eggshell had to be broken into minute pieces to destroy the evidence.

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We often flooded in Priory Lane and my Uncle Alf used to get out his dinghy and row down the High Street to us, and we used to lower a basket from an upstairs window on a rope with money to get our groceries. This was then raised up to us. It seemed we could not have the front door opened as flood water would have come in. I don't know how food was cooked.

I had a rabbit I used to dress up and put into an old dolls’ pram, and it used to come shopping with Mum and I to the High Street in the pram. Ayres the Butchers used to save Mum offal (liver, kidneys etc) for me to get extra food. He was one of the few that were kind to us. Every month I got taken to Boots the chemist for a 'cake' to keep my blood good. It tasted horrible and I dreaded it. The other thing I got dosed with was castor oil and black treacle. No idea what for. You had to be tough to survive in my house.

At Easter Mum was determined I would have an egg; she used to hard boil eggs and then dye them and put pictures on them. She did experiment with cocoa, but it was not very successful.  I remember sitting under the kitchen table with Mum watching the dog fights through the open door. Another day we were out in the fields gleaning the crops left behind and a German fighter plane came over and strafed the field. My Mum threw me in a ditch and lay on top of me.

The soldiers used to come and help us, and they found out Mum was a cockney, so they decided to have a singsong and a tank arrived with a piano on top at our house. I was banished to the attic with a candle. The candle threw shadows across the ceiling and a spider got huge. I was terrified. All of a sudden, an old lady appeared at the foot of my bed. She was dressed in a black dress, and it had a large white collar and cuffs. She didn't say anything, but I was immediately calmed and fell asleep. I told my Mum about the lady next day, but she laughed and said it was my imagination. My first encounter with a ghost?

 

One Christmas when I was about 5, I was sitting at the front door on the steps with my rabbit when some Yanks went past. They asked me what Santa Claus was bringing me for Christmas and I replied that Mum said, because of the bombing he could not get through this year so I would be getting nothing. They emptied their pockets of any candies they had and gave them to me.  At Christmas we used to make chains out of newspaper and go into the hedgerows for greenery. Somebody came home with a tree (not fir), and this was decorated with acorns, cones, and also folk donated their bits of old jewelry for the duration. Decorations had to be down by the Twelfth Night for two reasons, one it was thought unlucky and the other was it was my birthday on 4th of January and preparations had to be made for this. A precious candle was spared for whatever cake my Aunt Mary could find ingredients for.  I believe carrots were a large ingredient. It did not matter to me as I had never tasted the dry fruits used in the pre-war period.  I just enjoyed having a cake. On Christmas morning Mum went to the front door and there was a sack there brimming with toys, sweets, soap on a rope, tins of food, and so many things I can't remember. But I do remember two things, the first black doll I had ever seen - I named her Diana - and my first taste of Lifebuoys, a sweet I fondly remember and would love to get my hands on again.

I had chickenpox and was very itchy and irritable when the GIs came by. My aunt used to do their laundry. A Native American came - in his tribe he was a medicine man, and he danced around my bed chanting. My chickenpox disappeared but my poor Mother had mumps and chickenpox. I knew him as Rainbow, and I believe he made his home in St. Neots. I only found out about him staying in Britain very recently otherwise I would have certainly made contact.

We kept many dogs and cats as the place was alive with rats, mice etc. On one occasion I inadvertently cornered a rat, and as it jumped at me from the top of the stairs my dog Sandy jumped and caught the rat in his jaws and killed it. My poor dog broke his back and had to be put down.  I have never had a dog since.  A friend whose father ran a stables, I think in the Mews in St Neots, kept hunters, and I loved to ride them bare back until my mother found out and put a stop to it.

My mother had a friend who lived on a houseboat on the Ouse in St Neots and we used to go to her for tea. She lived in Maida Vale before the war and went back after. We used to go with her to the Strand to Lyons Corner House and I always had a sponge with a Lyons ice cream roll. Delicious.

 

Doctors had to be paid for in those days. My Mum took me to Dr Patterson, and he told her unless she started giving me my rations I would get TB. My rations had been given to my Granny up to then. After that my health and diet improved. My Dad was in London and worked in the War Office in the Strand. He sent Mum a postal order for 10 shillings (50p) a week to help towards the rent and food. It didn't go far, hence the gleaning in the fields and taking in laundry.

My Aunt Mary worked in the Cross Keys as a cook. I remember her fetching home potatoes to peel for the next day's meals. She worked very hard but after losing her husband she was, I suppose, shell-shocked.  There were so many like her that she received no treatment, and dark storms would send her huddling under the stairs convinced it was another air raid. She never recovered and led a miserable existence. She sent away to America to get me my first pair of nylons which were like gold dust. I wore them for my first dance.

I believe, on the war ending in Europe, there was a fancy-dress parade for the children. Mum put 2 Union Jack flags together to make me a dress. The Americans used to put on entertainment in the hall by St. Neots bridge for the children, but I was never lucky enough to get an invite.  I sneaked a look once and was amazed to see a man 12 foot high. Sheer magic.

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By now you will have had more than enough of me so I will close. Because I was young it was a wonderful childhood. I had, over the years, come to my aunt and uncle, who remained in Cambridgeshire for the rest of their lives, for weekends and holidays, which made me decide I wanted to live in Buckden, where I now live very happily.

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