After a very sheltered life travelling around England, due to my father being in the Air Force for 35 years, I was brought up by my mother who had to do most of the parenting. She had two brothers and two sisters, and was the second eldest. My brother was seven years older than me, so we weren’t very close. He went into the Army, when he was 18 years old, and hated it, and after the two years National Service, couldn’t wait to leave home, as my mother was very strict and overprotective, I suppose. I remember some of the war years. We were living in a place called Sealand, near Chester, it was close to an RAF camp. There were times when, if we heard the sirens we had to close the curtains, turn the lights out and listen to the sounds of the bombings in the distance. Sometimes we had to go into an air-raid shelter for safety My grandparents lived with us for a while, they were wise and wonderful people. Grandpa could turn his hand to just about anything, and mended all our shoes, which, because we did so much walking and playing, soon wore out. He used to keep ducks and chickens, so we always had plenty of eggs, and we had the odd chicken for our dinner as well as rabbit stew. He also kept a vegetable garden, which provided us with essential goodness. No wonder we were a healthy family! That brings me to ages. My grandfather lived until he was 91, my gran 90 and my mother just a month short of 86. I didn’t see my father for years but I understand he died aged 81. Quite a good record!! A couple of things that stand out in my memory about my grandmother was, she had a wardrobe in her room that she hid all her personal things in, such as money, and she always locked it. Quite often she would give her grandchildren a 10 shilling note or half a crown, then days later, she would swear she had more money in her cash box than what she saw, and used to accuse her husband of taking some. He didn’t have a key to the wardrobe, so how could he have taken money! He got used to it in the end. My Mum used to remind her who she had given money to, when they visited. They use to enjoy having a game of cards one or two evenings a week, but Nan didn't like losing! Oh yes, we use to play for pennies. I played in the street opposite our house. Rounders, hop scotch, hide and seek, three ball, whip and top, (where you coloured the top with chalk, which made nice patterns) were all enjoyable. We rode bikes and climbed trees, and there weren’t many cars on the road then, so these were the happiest days of my childhood. It was a sad day when we had to move from this area, due to my father being posted to another town. How I hated starting another school. I can just about remember VE Day. There was a celebration street party, with long tables and people sat eating what food was available. Music, dancing and happiness filled the air. It was wonderful.