| Extract from my cousin's daughter's
interview with her grandma (My Aunt aged 80)
My grandma said she was born in Rossington (near Doncaster UK). and her younger sister (my
mother) was born in Hatfield Woodhouse, which is where her mother Ada,
died in 1929.
Grandma remembers living in Maltby when she was around 6
or 7 years old. She seems to have very good memories of that place. She
said they had very nice furniture (since the kid's were not allowed to sit
on it!) and they had a lovely piano that no-one was allowed to touch.
Although my grandma said she would touch the keys when no one was around.
She said the only time she heard it played was when her dad was having his
teeth pulled out! She said seven doctors came to the house and put him on
the kitchen table and gave him some whisky (no anaesthetic) then one of
the doctors played the piano to cover the screaming!...
Grandma was also recounting some stories of living
during the war. She said it was pitch black everywhere during the night
(no lights were allowed which would have given the German bombers a
target).
One night it was raining 'cats and dogs' and they could
hear the sound of planes above. Aunt Hilda said "Poor buggers up there"
thinking it was an English pilot flying through the storm but no sooner
had she uttered those words when they heard the sound of a bomb being
dropped. It was a German plane! The bomb landed close to the pit (coal
mine) but luckily the pit wasn't damaged.
She remembers hearing the air raid sirens many times and
having to run to the 'Hole in the ground' (air raid shelters) with her gas
mask. She say's they didn't get much sleep at that time, as they still had
to go to school or to work the following morning, even after being awake
most of the night in the bomb shelter.
Thanks to Candy (Canada) for sharing this story with us. |
