A Teenager in Sunderland - Their Past Your Future (sitios de interés)
Descripción del sitio
When the War broke out there was panic in our street. We thought the German bombers would be flying straight across the North Sea — my mother made us all get under our beds. We soon had an air raid shelter made in the back garden and our next-door neighbours would come in as soon as the air raid siren sounded. It was bitterly cold and we were all frightened hearing the bombs dropping. We could often spend many hours in the shelter but we still had to carry on with our daily work. I was working in the Power Petroleum Company at Roker, Sunderland as a junior typist. I cycled to work each day and we had to carry our gas masks with us at all times. One day I arrived at work without my gas mask — I was terrified but didn’t dare tell anybody. I just kept glancing at the clock and was so thankful when it was my lunch hour. I cycled as fast as I could up Roker Avenue and across the town, right along Thornholme Road to my home in Braeside. After a quick drink of water I grabbed my gas mask and cycled all the way back to work.It was most uncomfortable in the air raid shelter and my sister Joan and I were always covered with flea bites. We longed for a cup of tea but often Mother had used the tea ration. My father was warden for Braeside and many men walked up and down the streets making sure everyone was alright. My father had many friends.
Everything was rationed. One day somebody said Woolworths had knicker elastic — there was a stampede — we could each buy one yard.
Very occasionally there would be bananas for sale — you could stand in a long queue for two or three bananas but it was worth the wait. Bananas were kept for children only. What I wanted most of all was a Fry’s Sandwich Bar. I still wonder at all the things in the shops now.
I will always remember the night a bomb landed on the railway station in Sunderland — the explosion blew the wheels of a carriage right out of the station and through Mr Joseph’s shop window. The Victoria Hall was also bombed — Joan and I were terrified.
I had a younger brother who was only seven when the War was declared and my aunt also had two young sons. She hired a taxi to take them all to the County Durham village of Eggleston, where they were evacuated for just a short time. My aunt was very unhappy and the boys were not learning anything at the village school. Another aunt suggested they all went to Maltby, a small town near Rotherham where she was a head teacher. When my brother Philip started school there the teacher asked him his name and he replied Philip Maltby — the teacher told him to hold out his hand and she caned him. Philip was a dear little boy and he always had a smile.
When I was eighteen, in 1942, I joined the Royal Air Force and spent five wonderful years. What an experience. I had to report to an airfield in Gloucester but had never been further than the County Durham town of Barnard Castle. Everybody in my hut smoked — thank goodness I wasn’t tempted. At the end of the War I was posted to Germany. Although we were forbidden to speak to the people we were polite to the children and gave them our sweet ration.
Betty Sutherland (nee Maltby)