Children of the Blitz BBC 2

We were chatting about this today when we were out to lunch; most people on our table were in their 80s and some in their 90s and they remembered the unused bombs that were dropped by German planes on their way back from raids. One man said they'd evacuated to Devon but the back of their house was blown off by one such bomb; DH remembers the windows cracking during Plymouth Blitz. He was too young to know what had happened. The Australians sent food parcels with tinned fruit, jams, tinned meat etc during WW2 and afterwards. DH was lucky to have Australian relatives who sent them parcels.
My brothers came running home one day to report that the local greengrocers had oranges, so they were sent back to join the queue!

Basgetti (it got changed to Bassett somehow) l was not impressed by banana taste either. But other children watched me eating it so that added to the excitement really, l think.
The war was not good for my family, not casualties, but it altered our way of living for ever.

Apparently, Attlee arranged for some shipments of bananas post-war to boost the country's morale.There was a time after the war when food and other goods were more restricted than during the war itself, so arranged for the bananas to persuade people it had all been worth it.

Basgetti, my Mum also spoke of tinned peaches. Her mother owned a haulage company which had a contract with the US army. I guess a few tins of peaches (and a few other things) "dropped off" the lorries. Ahem!

She was evacuated to Herefordshire to avoid the blitz over Merseyside.

Hilltop

Bassett, l remember my first banana in the late 1940's. There were long queues at shops if they were selling bananas .

What did you think, Hilltop?
Mum still remembers the huge disappointment! Her sisters had regaled her with stories of bananas and how wonderful they were. It was, well, a banana 😁
She still has to force herself to eat them.

Bassett, l remember my first banana in the late 1940's. There were long queues at shops if they were selling bananas .

My mum was a late surprise, arrived when her three sisters were working adults. Born in October, 1939, she and her mum were evacuated to Durham but lasted just a couple of weeks there. Granny couldn’t bear to be away from her other daughters and grandad, who was a fire warden after fighting in WW1 and thankfully survived without physical injury. Different story mentally. The screams in the night didn’t cease, even into very old age.
The family were bombed out twice (Lambeth) but miraculously all survived.
All lived on into their late 80s and 90s.
Mum is the last one. 86 with mid-stage dementia, she can still remember the sound of the doodlebugs and running with mum to the shelter and being put to bed under the metal table. Her first banana and orange, too, in the late 40s, I think. They had plenty of canned peaches, though. Single Auntie Peggy was rather popular with American troops 😁

What an emotional programme. The value of contributions from people who remember in such detail the danger, terror and emotional stress cannot be overestimated.
I read this morning that the lovely lady from Belfast. who became mute for a while due to the horrors, has died since filming.
They were such a brave and stoic generation.

We have recorded it

Yes we watched. Horrific and so sad for so many. But amazing that there are still those around to tell what it was really like.