Evacuee Boys (16 page)

I hope you are all very well and raids are OK

How is Noni tell her I am sending her my love, and that I want to hear from her. Exams are coming soon (wish me luck). Please send me some more money as I only have a few coppers left I am quite well and have got used to being alone as I am usually with Les Fribbins my pal. I hope you will soon be able to send me a pair of shoes and a jacket. Write soon and send me some money soon please.

Millions of kisses and love from your loving son

John

10
March
1941

Dear Everybody,

How are you all getting on? I am very well. But I don’t hear enough from you. Although you didn’t send any mony last time I was lucky as I found 6
d
tucked away in my purse and Miss Ruby Hainz (Andrew can tell you who she is) gave me 6
d
on Sunday but I have 1/1 left, and 7
d
is being owed to me.

I am sending ‘Hotspur’ ‘Champion’ & ‘Adventure’ I haven’t got that ‘Adventure’ that I borrowed yet, so you will have to read backwards.

I hope you will be able to send me some money and a parcle containing shirts, shoes if possible jacket socks, and my paint, and some chocolat if you can get it as we can’t get it here. soon.

From now on when I get some money I’ll put what I’ve got left from last time in the savings. How is Andrews job? I want to know all about it. Have you heard from the B.B.C.?

Easter Monday is on April 14. so I hope to be home with you all soon. On Wednesday I am taking a trade scolalrship which might get me to a secondary school if I am lucky.

I heard the London had some bad raids throughout the week end I hope everything is OK. Is the Pop Inn getting on well? How is Noni? And I want to know if the kitten is any better. I want you to write more at least twice a week. I do, so why shouldn’t you?

Do you have many raids? We had a few warnings lately but nothing happens.

You’ll have to congratulate Melksham as they are building 3 surface shelters. I still have not been able to read the ‘Adventure’ that I missed so try and send it to get it.

For our History exams we have got to learn about 2 or 3 dozen dates (only ahem) and write out facts about 10 people in history. If Andrew was here I’d disguise him as myself and let him take my place but I am unlucky. But I’m not worrying much about history much. Geography is the one I am worreing about. I’ll have to finish now as I have to swot up those History dates yet. So I’ll have to finish off.

9999 millions x1009 kisses from your loving
John

22
April
1941

Dear Darlings,

I have not been able to get Andrew’s gas-mask yesterday but I got it at dinner-time after school to-day. Mrs. Robbins has not yet given me the money for the eggs in fact she has not even mentioned anything about giving me it. I arrived at Melksham fairly early and I saw a procession for the War wepons week. And in some of the big shops windows are parachutes lewis-guns, tommy guns rubber dhingies, camara guns and camaras that are fitted to reconnasence planes, and the town is full of posters which the boys & girls have have done and flags. I have not seen my poster yet.

Has daddy got to Evesham safely? I have bought an other 6
d
savings stamp and I have 7/- in the savings now. We have had very good wether and it is nice and hot. Have you got my report yet. I am sending the gas mask and the ‘Adventure’. How is everybody please write soon. Daddy has not written to me yet.

92345678901267 3/100 3/100 millions of kisses from your everloving

John

Slowly spring arrived. In the middle of April, there was a prediction in the astrology column of the
Sunday Express
that a long-awaited event would happen. I thought, that could only mean the BBC. The following morning the telephone rang. They called from the BBC that I should go to the Establishment Officer at once in connection with my job, because it was now open. We could barely wait with excitement for the next day. When I went, they received me saying that for the summer vacations, about seven months, they could employ me, but I would have to go to Evesham, because that was where the work was done. They warned me that the job was only till the autumn, and I should accept it only if it does not mean giving up something more certain. My pay would be £7 (rather than the £2/10/- at the Pop Inn) and they would pay for lodging and simple daily meals. The work would be for five days a week, two days free when I would be free to go to London, once a month at the expense of the BBC. The work schedule would be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. one week, 4 p.m. to midnight the next and from midnight to 8 a.m. the third. Without thinking, I accepted the job, hoping that after the holiday period they might retain me. Although it was painful that we would not be together for five days a week, we were happy that there was such a great improvement in my earning capacity. Instead of being the manager of a small restaurant, I received a serious, responsible position, which would help in some way in the war effort. As an alien, I had been under certain restrictions. I had to be off the streets by midnight and was not allowed to have a radio, etc. As an important government employee, these restrictions were lifted.

I travelled to Evesham, 2 hours from London; I was both happy and sad. I was met by a woman, the billeting officer, at the railway station, who showed me where I was to stay. There were two others who were hired on the same terms as I was. My flat was a horror. It was a nice little house, with a room in the attic. It had no window, only a vent, which let the rain in when opened. The furniture consisted of a horrible small bed, an ugly cupboard and a washstand. The owner of the house was a young widow, who herself had to go to work, so she did not provide breakfast as in other billets. A bus took me to work, half an hour from Evesham, in a beautiful park where there were barracks. I was allocated in one of these, in Unit Y. I began work at 4 p.m. The place was filled all kinds of radios, connections and recorders with which we used to record what we heard on to discs. On the first day it looked too complicated and I was afraid I would not be able to learn to use it. One radio could receive five or six stations and one had to pay attention every moment to see what was happening at the various German broadcasts and everything had to be written down on paper. My English was far from perfect, my spelling was not good and I could not see well in the lighting there. I wrote to Mum to send me a Hungarian–English dictionary and my glasses, which I had not been using at that time. They introduced me to the supervisor, who struck me as being a very big man, and to the chief, a young Englishman called Shankland, who seemed a very important person in my eyes. I was very impressed with the other monitors who knew their work so well. I was worried how I would learn all this. There were monitors from all kinds of nationalities in Evesham but our unit only had Germans, Austrians and one Hungarian besides me. Every two hours during the work, we were allowed to go to the canteen for tea and later for dinner. It was always arranged that while one was in the canteen, another colleague would be listening to the broadcasts.

I wrote to Mum almost every day and kept counting the days before I could come and see her in London. On her advice, I did not come home every third week, because the time would have been very short. I finished work at midnight and two days later I had to start at 8 a.m., and as I could not travel till the morning, I would not have had to return the following afternoon. Nevertheless, sometimes I used even that short period, because I longed for her terribly. Every third week I was able to stay in London for three days, because I finished work at 4 p.m. and after two days’ leave, I did not start work till midnight, so I got to return to Evesham in the afternoon of the third day.

I got to learn the work fairly quickly and I got used to it. The supervisors liked me and I had friendly relationship with my colleagues, although I did not develop a close relationship with any of them. I did not spend much time in the billet, because it was uncomfortable and unfriendly. I asked them to place me in a better one. The food in the canteen was not too enjoyable. Because of the war, hardly anything good was available. If we got an egg, it was counted like a feast day. It was hard to get cigarettes; I always brought some from London.

Johnny was not too far from me in Melksham and I brought him over for two or three days when he was on holiday. We were both happy. He slept with me in my narrow bed, we could hardly turn, but we both felt comfortable. When I went to work till 4 p.m., he slept part of the time and looked round the town part of the time. He was 12, and in my eyes still a little boy and it worried me that he was on his own. He had to go to have his breakfast alone, I gave him money and told him where to go. I sent him to the club for lunch and asked the waitress to take care of him and after I returned, we had a happy afternoon and evening together. When he had to return next day, I could not be with him when he got on the bus, because I had to leave the house at 7 a.m. and forgetting how independent I had been when I was 12, I worried whether he got on the right bus or that no trouble should come his way. He promised to send me a card as soon as he arrived and a big stone fell from my heart when I received his card that all was well.

At the same time, I awaited Mum’s letters and counted the days before I came home. How happy these homecomings were? Mum was more and more occupied in the Pop Inn; Uncle Eugene put her behind the counter as ‘bar manageress’, she served drinks and got tips, which I could not bear, but she insisted that this would improve your income, which had now increased to £3. For this reason, she became the pillar of the business. She opened it at 8 a.m. and closed it at midnight. She took care of the stores, which was a very tiring job and her feet began to ache from standing all day. She had one day off and two hours in the afternoon. That was taken up with going home, having a bath and returning, so there was not much opportunity for rest. Nevertheless she wrote a sweet letter to me every night before going to bed, so that in the five days when I was away from her, I was not without news. When I was in London, I sat by the bar and watched how she served the people. Despite her work, everyone treated her as a lady. They knew that she was the proprietor’s sister-in-law, and her appearance and behaviour elicited everyone’s respect.

One beautiful spring morning when I got home after five nights of work, as I arrived in London, to my joy she was awaiting me at the train station, together with Andrew. As always, she had a sweet dress and Andrew with a beautiful new suit, which he bought from his own earnings. You were both extremely proud that our son could buy clothes out of his own money, only I was not happy that the poor boy had to work and that I was not buying it for him. I did not know about it beforehand, it was a big surprise. Only our Johnny was missing. The three days at home was like a new honeymoon, actually all my homecomings counted as such. Unfortunately Mum had to work during the time and her feet hurt even more from much standing.