Document ten
Home front memories
We had a Border Collie Cross bitch who shepherded us into the Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden. She was last in and first out! She knew the sirens and all-clears, this was about 1940. Later in the war we stayed in our beds (beds brought downstairs) as we hated the cockroaches which got into our bedding on the shelter's bunks. I remember hearing the first 'Doodlebugs'.
Rations were meagre. Sometimes only one egg per person per week.
My mother began to keep chickens. We had to give up our rationed egg to
buy 'toppings' to feed the chickens. There were no bananas for years!
I remember blackout curtains and ARP Wardens cycling round yelling 'Put
out that light!' if anyone showed a chink. There was sticky tape over
the windows in the form of the Union Jack to prevent the danger of flying
glass.
Identity cards had to be produced at Crayford Bridge and shown to a Policeman who boarded every trolleybus (696) and Green Line coach. If one didn't live on the Dartford side, one would have to give an explanation for one's journey. Traffic lights were blacked out with only a cross to show the colour through. Names of railway stations were not shown; trains had permanently blacked-out windows. I remember a lack of ordinary things like ribbon, tape, and elastic. We carried a gasmask in a cardboard box with a shoulder strap. There were posters bearing the warning 'Be like Dad, Keep Mum' and 'Careless Talk Costs Lives' and 'Dig for Victory'. My father dug up his precious lawn to plant vegetables.
All the metal gates and fences went to make armaments. There were very few cars because of the lack of petrol, only those on important war work drove. There was no T.V., but Tommy Handley was on the radio.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF JOAN HALL (DARTFORD)