A new tomorrow

[Keith Tindell]

I can remember the old Anderson, in my grans garden in Portsmouth, used as a shed afterwards, but always damp

[cappy]

during the war although i was tooo young to remember most of it ....my father was away ...we lived with my gran.....my father was sergeant on an ante aicraft gun with a crew of five in belfast ...when the big bombing took place many killed ......we were bombed out twice in shields ....so my gran rented a small house in a place called butterknowle in county durham.....no electric .....and a midden out the back ...oil lamps in the house ....the important job was the wicks on the lamps if not right the house filled with smoke .....we truly did have candlestick to bed .....my granda put two large hooks in the frame of the front door and hung a swing for me .....he was home almost weekly being on the colliers .....there was a prison camp nearby ...which housed germans.....my gran would rush me inside telling me not to look at them .....while loudly shouting in geordie what a shower she thought of them.....there was no shortage of food as many had allotments in that little place ....i went to school ist time there.....many years later being in the area in the late 90s i visited the house when i pulled up outside .....the ist thing i noticed was the hooks still fixed in the door...that was quite emotional .....i then spoke to an elder lady who remembered our family...and those times ...it was an interestin and rememorable day .....77 years ago now since i lived there ....the only wonder is where has it all gone......R683532

[j.sabourn]

Too busy supporting a wife and family Cappy, like most males of that period it was customary to marry and support your own , today is rare to see a marriage run its full course. Expectations are different , morality is not what it once was. But at least most of the older generations can die with clear consciences knowing we kept most of our pledges. In 1946 we moved back to Whitley Bay ,the beach still had the barbed wire up and soup kitchens were in vogue, we lived in furnished rooms waiting for my old man returning from Burma. Seeing Whitley Bay then and now I always remember. cheers JS.

[Keith Tindell]

I think i posted before, in 1945 we were living in a little village called Empshott, not far from Petersfield, and Dad who had been war wounded on HMS Suffolk had a job in a tied house as a gardener chauffeur . The bungalow had no electric, no flushing toilet, it was bucket and bury in the garden, one oil lamp and candles, and Mum cooked on a solid fuel range. We did have food aplenty, kept chickens veg from the garden etc. After a while the big house as the guv house was known, put in a flushing toilet !!!, yippee, have a dump, pull a chain, and all gone

[cappy]

well keith ...i suppose the flushing loo was one of the ist benefits .....did your dad recover fully in time ...cappy

[Keith Tindell]

Cappy, i have a photo of Dad burying the bucket and its contents, incidentally , grew the best spuds we ever grew in that garden, flushing toilet not good for spuds. You would have enjoyed those spuds when you were at sea, like rugby balls, peeling done before smoko

[cappy]

ist time i went through the suez ....the cook told me they used human excrement in the tatty fields i didnt like that .....i asked the second cook is that right what the cook said ....his reply was its a load of shite.........but them tatties in the hot countries were all the size of golf balls and that was the big ones.....42 hands 6 tatties per man times twice a day504 tatties .....lol cappy