I’m a 1942 baby ….born whilst my dad was in the army in Italy. Always lived in our 3 bedroom semi in Woodford which meant they must have bought that house just before the start of the second war. Started school at 4 (can remember the huge rocking horse in the corner of the classroom, the camp beds where we had our ‘afternoon rest’ and not answering when the teacher called out my name on the register)! Mum picked me up from school on her bike ….I had a little seat on the back and she always brought with her a bottle of orange (the thick stuff that was issued and you diluted it with water) and I drank that as she peddled us home…it felt like heaven after a day at school
Some time after the war was over - my dad had a job as a soft toy salesman with an office in London (right opposite St. Paul’s cathedral) and mum worked there two or three days a week there as his secretary, but instead of a typewriter on her desk she had a sewing machine…so I guess she just answered the phone for Dad when he was out visiting his customers! I had loads of dresses as a child because she had all the time in the world to make them at work!
I have so many more memories and have realized that, looking back, my older brother and I had the best of childhoods and we were so loved and cared for, but at the time I thought that was how everyone’s life was.
Off Licence/Off Label Medication
Your next holiday must be to where the first holiday you remember , where are you going?g
What was directly across the road from the school you went to?
Cookery books and other books - are you keeping them ?
Doc Martin/Martin Clunes reinvents himself as the Father of American Doc Martin!



