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This story was submitted to the People's War website by Irene Hawkins of CSV Coventry and Warwickshire Action Dedsk on behalf of Pam Noon. The author is fully aware of the site's conditions.

I was 13 years old when the war began.

I had to leave school early at about 14 and a half although I should have stayed until I was 16. This was because my parents were worried that the train to Leamington Spa might be bombed. The first thing we had to do when war was declared was to get some cheap blackout materials to cover all the windows at night, so that the enemy planes couldn't see a chink of light. We were told to keep all curtains tightly drawn and be very careful when we opening doors if light showed. An air raid Warden would come round and should "Put that light out". They wore tin helmets with ARP painted on them. Wardens were some of the older chaps who were too old to join the services or too unfit. We had air-raid drills most days in case a bombdropped nearby. As the war went on we had very little food at times and we were rationed to small amounts of the essentials. We had dried egg, and nothing nice could be got. One of my favourite meals was roast potatoes, bread and margarine and brown sauce. I worked in Leamington later in the war. We would go to the canteen in the Town Hall and get cheap meals, and they were quite odd at times ( depending on what was available to fillmyou up) but tasty.I had whale meat once there. The bread was dark brown and hard, and cakes were rare.

People had to grow as many vegetables as they could as nothing was being imported from abroad. 'Dig for Victory' it said on posters/ Anything metal - pots and pans, gates fences etc were collected to hlep the war effort, and were melted down to make guns etc. Some of us teenagers(aged about 16 or so) boys and girls would go to a chap in the village (Mr G.) who hd a little 'shop' in a shed in his garden. He used to cut men's hair in there as well. We would meet up there and sit and chat when the shopmwas open. His wife (Mrs. G) would cook us a pan of chips and we would sit talking and eating chips of of newspaper. When we went off home we would say 'see you tomorrow if we're still here' and we would hear bombers flying overhead on their way to bomb COventry or Birmingham. We could tell by the sound of the engines whether they were one of ours or the Jerries. I remember my dad, who was very good with a needle, got hold of some curtain brocade fabric from somewhere and made me a lovely fancy blouse to wear to a dance. Of course some nasty person had to pass a remark "Ooh, look at her - wearing the curtains". A lot of ladies started wearing trousers during the war because they had to work in factories and also for simple reason tht if you laddered your nylons then you went without any leg covering !

We never saw bananas during the war. I had a boyfriend when I was a bit older, who was in the Fleet Air Arm and there was a great excitement when he sent me a box of bananas when he was stationed in Malta. Lots of little children had never seen a banana.

We had to carry gas marks and identity cards and you couldn't get on a bus without them. Sign posts were removed so that if the Germans came they wouldn't know how to get anywhere. When we were 18 we couldn'twork where we liked we had to work to help the war effort. I rmember OCentry being blitzed. My Mum and Dad and I stood on a hill as Coventry lit up and was burning, and we could hear bombs exploding and the planes flying overhead. It was very frightening. No-one was allowed into the city to work the next day so my dad couldn't go to work. I remember going down the lane leading to the next village and picking up pieces of shrapnel (metal pieces) that were left when a stray bomb was dropped in a field near the village.

I was cycling to Bishops Itchington with a friend of VE day and we heard the church bells ringing out in the villages along the way, so that we knew that the war in Europe was really over. There were big celebrations a onth or two later when Japan finally gave up their fight, and we were glad. The chaps didn't return home straight away though. We hd to wait quite a long time to see our boys again - those were the lucky ones.

We had a little boy to live with us as an evauee from London. My mum and dad adopted after his mum died when he was only 7 - and he became my little brother.

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