At school I sat next to a girl called Lorna who would ask me to take down the lowest speed for her when
Mr. George was giving us Shorthand dictation. I would then wait until my speed was given out and take down
my notes. Lorna would then keep asking 'What came after ... ?' and I would have to whisper it to her whilst
trying to translate my own notes. Fortunately we were never caught!
As we had no school field we would go on the tram to another school for hockey. I remember one day when my
friend was singing 'The flowers that bloom in the Spring Tra Ia' and swinging her hockey stick it caught
another girl in the mouth and knocked her front tooth out. Nancy was horrified at what she had done, the
other girl was none too pleased either poor lass. For country dancing lessons we went to the Quaker hall
opposite the school.
Another memory I have of Nancy and myself happened one day when our teacher left the room. I don't know why,
but for some reason or other the whole class went wild, acting crazily. Nancy was chasing me with her ruler,
trying to slap me whilst I was shrieking 'No, Nancy. No' and running wildly round the room. We both thought it
hilarious - that is until the dreadful realisation dawned on us that we were the only two cavorting round
the class- room! Everyone else was sitting silent and straight on their forms. Looking at their horrified
expressions as they, with one accord, turned their heads and looked towards the window, we also looked and
saw Basher on the verandah leaning on his arms on the window ledge watching us! Silence! Crooking his finger
at us he uttered five sickening words "You two fools my Study!"
Heartfelt looks of sympathy now replaced the looks of horror on the faces of our friends as we walked out
of the classroom. The walk to his Study seemed endless - surely someone must have added another Fifty stairs!!
Reaching the Study at last, we walked in. What a lecture followed as we waited for the dreaded cane. It
never came! Instead we were given an essay to write on "Why I should not go through life as a fool." Phew!
It could have been so much worse. Another memory I have is of the Typing Room. Most of the typewriters were
the sit-up-and-beg Underwoods with the margin counter on the front of the machine. Very heavy to use. But,
there were two Royal typewriters, much easier to work, and so there would be a rush to see who could get to
the Royals first! And when I first started working lo and behold there was the good old Underwood waiting
for me!
One day when we were all asked what we wanted to do when we left school most of the girls said
'A Secretary' adding in which branch of the Forces they wanted to join. The boys varied from being a
journalist to being a sailor. As our town was on the coast most boys went to sea and we had an excellent
Marine College. I believe at that time there were only two Marine Colleges in England - one in London and
ours. So we were very proud of it, and young men would come from all over the world to study for their
'Tickets'. Most of the boys in the class said they wanted to join either the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy
- all that is except Alan! He stood up and said 'I'm going to be a Mathematician!' The whole class howled
with laughter at him as he stood in the aisle, stuck out his chest, put his chin in the air and announced
not what he would like to be but what he was definitely going to be!! Even the teacher laughed at his stance
and pride. I laughed too even though he was slipping me the answers!
I remember our singing lessons very well. We sang songs from 'The Arcadians' such as 'A Batchelor gay am I'
and we also sang 'Trees,' 'Because,' and 'The Kashmiri Love Song.' Beautiful songs which we all enjoyed.
One day Mr. George told us the poignant story behind the song 'The Lost Chord' and we sang it at the end of
term concert that year with particular feeling.
I also remember one day when Mr. George asked me to come out and asked 'What is that note?' I answered 'E'
but what he had wanted me to say was the first word of the song! I had no idea so answered 'E' he then said
'Oh, you are trying to blind us with science are you?' and handed me a baton and said 'Right, conduct the
class!' What I hadn't realised was that the class was missing the first word and lazily coming in on the
second and he had wanted to point this out to the class. So for my unawareness I was awarded the baton!
What an idiot I felt waving the conductor's baton around whilst the class giggled.
At the end of every term we had a concert. There was no study leave and children leaving in dribs and drabs,
as they do now, we had a proper end of term concert with everyone saying 'Good-bye' to each other. These
concerts were great fun as each class gave an item or two with solos and even a ballet dance from one girl.
We also put on plays so the end of term concert spread out over a few days - wonderful. I remember being in
Sheridan's 'The Rivals' and also 'The Importance of being Earnest.' I also remember the feast we had on the
final day with each one bringing something to eat. It rounded off the term with a feeling of accomplishment
and satisfaction.
The comics we read at this time were full of fun being poked at Hitler and Mussolini.
One was titled - 'Musso the Wop he's a big-a-da Flop' and we would laugh at his foolishness and how we
always outwitted him and his army!
 | We also enjoyed listening to Itma with Tommy Handley, Mrs.Mopp, Colonel Chinstrap, and, of course, 'Fumf' a caricature of the dreadful Lord HawHaw |
| Everyone who lends and saves Helps Britannia rule the waves' |  |
When the Ities gave in then we could no longer poke fun at them.
But there was always Hitler and his Nazis left to laugh at.
Workers Playtime was also on the wireless when a concert party would go to a Factory 'Somewhere in the
South of England' or 'Somewhere in the Midlands.'
The town was never mentioned as it could have led a spy to informing the Germans
of the whereabouts of a munitions or aircraft factory.
Under the 'Employment of Women Order' women under 50 years, unless exempted, were expected to be occupied
in some sort of war work. In factories where women filled shells they became coated in yellow powder which
dyed their skin and so they were nicknamed 'Canaries.'
We enjoyed going occasionally to the cinema to see Laurel and Hardy, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, and of,
course, Deanna Durbin with her beautiful amazing voice. Then there was Greer Garson in 'Mrs. Miniver' and
so many others. Going to the cinema during the war was always a great event. There was always the main 'A'
picture, a shorter 'B' picture, and a newsreel. There was no T.V. in our homes at this time, in fact we had
never even heard the word 'Television.' Often an organist would rise up out of the Pits playing the latest
songs on the organ. A screen would then come down with the words of the songs and everyone would sing - men,
women, boys and girls, we would all enjoy ourselves and it lifted our spirits.
I suppose it was a relief
from the daily horrors - the telegrams announcing 'Killed in action' 'Missing, believed killed' or, perhaps
worst of all, just the stark word 'Missing' as this could mean anything. There was a lot of neighbourliness
in those days, news from the Front was shared by all. Those with telegrams would pop into neighbours' houses
and together they would read the contents. Often the owner of the telegram would say 'You read it, I can't
bear to.'
We cared about each other, and what hurt one, hurt the whole street. So when a Newsreel came on at
the cinema you could feel the tension as people looked to see if they could pick out their loved one from
amongst the soldiers on the screen. We also wanted to know if we were being beaten back as we were in the
early years of the war. 'What was Jerry up to?' we wanted to know, and then, as we began to beat back the
enemy at El Alamein and other places the sense of relief came out in cheers and a totally different
atmosphere pervaded the cinema. But often people would weep as they saw our boys being held under fire in
the steamy, treacherous terrain of the Burmese Jungle, or the street fighting in France and when one of our
Planes was shot down 'That's a Hurricane going down' we could hear. Then 'Go on lads, get the Jerry' and
when a Jerry plane was shot down we would cheer. This may sound callous now, but to us it meant one less
enemy plane to come over and kill and maim us. It was 'them or us' in a very real sense. They were the
'baddies' and we were the 'goodies'. Hitler and his Nazis had just decided they wanted Poland - so they
walked in and took the country! They wanted, France; Holland; Belgium; Norway; Denmark; Greece; and so they
just walked into these countries, bombed them into submission and took them!! The Nazis also wanted England
and thought they could do the same to us as they had to the others so we were constantly on Invasion Alert
as Hitler made his plans to come across and conquer us. And we knew what that meant. People made to work
for the Germans and when the Underground blew up their trains or factories then dozens of men were taken
indiscriminately and shot. Their viciousness knew no bounds. So we were determined they would never land
on our soil.
A soldier had painted on a wall by our beach
'THEY SHALL NOT PASS'
and this was our mood.
As our great Winston Churchill said
So to see a German plane shot down, or their soldiers taken prisoner meant a few less to fight us.
We now saw and heard of how the Germans had treated the people into whose countries they had marched, and
also how they were treating Prisoners of War. The S. S. took our men the Allies - into the fields and shot
them, British, American, Canadian, hundreds of them had been murdered. The Geneva Convention meant nothing
to them.
Those who were 'lucky' spent their time in Stalags - the prisoner of War Camps - but even there many of
them were roughly treated. After seeing how we treated our prisoners of war by allowing them to work in the
fields and giving them food which we couldn't really spare, it made us angry to see how our boys were being
treated so differently.
I remember when one Jerry plane was shot down, a cordon was thrown around it and someone had written
'Made in Germany, Finished In England.' This cheered us no end.
Fragments of a German plane found in Beach Road after a raid which lasted six hours.
 | 130 enemy aircraft were engaged in action over our town. The Heinkel was hit by gun fire, collided with a barrage balloon and crashed in Beach Road. |
