| In those days during the war most of us kids had jobs, mostly as errand boys. My first job was at Bucks, a bakery shop in Chapel Street. I would have to start at 4.00pm, then wash the front windows, clear all the rubbish, inside and out, run any errands, scrub the floor on my hands and knees with hot soapy water, then use the water afterwards to scrub down the pavement outside the shop. This would take me well past 6.00pm each day Monday to Friday and on Saturday I would work all day – all for the princely sum of half a crown or two shillings and sixpence or 12 and a half p in today’s money – all of which I gave to my Dad. I was 11 years old! About 18 months or so later, my cousin, Peter Knight, left school and started work properly so I applied and got his job in a draper’s shop at 5 shillings a week and stayed there until I left school at 14 years of age. By then my pay had gone up to 7 shillings and sixpence a week. Most boys had jobs. This was mainly because of all the evacuees that came mostly from the cities of Portsmouth and London, who overcrowded our schools and houses. Everyone had lodgers. That meant we could only go to school for half days, mornings one week, afternoons the next, which suited us kids very well and enabled us to do any jobs to earn some money. At 11 years old who wanted to go to school anyway?
The war was great for us kids living in a country town like Petersfield. There were lots of military bands playing and marching up and down the main High Street; parades of soldiers in the Square. You could join the Cadet force and wear a nice uniform and play at being soldiers. We were allowed into NAAFI clubs, (canteens for servicemen), where we could get food and entertainment because we were in uniform.
We could see the fires of the Blitz of Portsmouth and Southampton and hear the noise of the bombs dropping at night, and by day you could sometimes see dog fights between British and German aircraft in the sky. Sometimes we would hear of a plane crash nearby, and we would get on our bikes and go hell for leather to find it, and look for anything that looked like being useful to us – like, for instance, bullets, aluminium and Perspex, a clear plastic out of plane windows which you could make into brooches and many other things; or any other objects we could find before the police arrived.
But the thing that sticks in my mind the most was the comradeship of the people, rich and poor alike, so friendly, everyone being nice to each other. Not like it is today. It was good to have lived through this era and come through it alive.
On one of the allotments Dad had planted birdseed for his canaries, (something else I inherited – canaries). At No 3, two doors down from us lived the Bright family. The husband, Lincoln Bright, also kept canaries and took a keen interest in this birdseed crop of mine. He also had an allotment near Dad’s. I asked Lincoln if he would like the birdseed crop and my canaries. He was delighted and said he would, and offered me a trade–in of a dinner every other day. Real food at long last!
This was the start of a friendship that brought me into their family. Both Lincoln and his wife, Vi, were very kind to me; not only at this time, but also throughout my time in the Navy and beyond.
Submitted by Bert
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