Re: life as a london school boy
g (vcavitt@TENET.EDU)
Fri, 4 Jul 1997 12:13:50 -0500
Hello Tom Holloway-At least one person in Texas doesn't know what marmite
is, could you please explain?
I'm very interested in WWII and when I return to my students we will
study the Holocaust and WWII. We have internet link at my school, so I
hope you will correspond with us. It's 104 in Houston today on July
4th. Hope it is cooler where you are!
On Wed, 2 Jul 1997, Tom Holloway wrote:
> Hello Isabel - you asked me....
>
> >I have recently read messages from you about, how when you
> >were a child in London during the Blitz you remember people
> >singing and dancing and how you actually slept on the tube
> >station platform.
>
> Singing yes - there was no point in trying to get to sleep
> until the last train left after 11, so it was very much the
> 'done thing' to enjoy yourself a bit. The wireless couldn't
> work on the platform (nowhere to plug 'em in), but there was
> always a jolly crowd ready for a bit of community sing-song.
>
> Dancing - no. No room for that (although I have a dim
> memory of a couple of squiffy women doing a bit of 'knees-up
> muvver brown').
>
>
>
> >Do you remember hardships eg not having things to eat? Were
>
> Not much - I got tired of being told to scrape the jam a bit
> thinner because we had used up our ration already, but I was
> well used to bread and scrape (marge or, with luck, some
> dripping with brown stuff that settled to the bottom*).
>
>
>
> >you ever evacuated?
>
> Briefly, but it was the 'phony war' of 1940 and after a couple
> of months my Mum decided London was safe enough and came and
> collected me.
>
> Tom Holloway
> (copied to family, for their amusement)
>
> --------------------------------------------
>
> [If you want to try 'bread and dripping', just fry up a few
> sausages and while the fat's hot, pour it into a basin with
> a spoonful of marmite. When it gets hard, spread it on your
> bread instead of butter. Even better, take it into school
> and give it to the kids for a bit of 'INSTANT EDIBLE WORLD
> WAR TWO'.]
>
> ======================================
> Tom Holloway - (+44) (0) 1926 888333
> Home: 01926 771772 Fax: 01926 771707
> Internet: t.holloway@warwick.ac.uk
> www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/chatback/
>