WELCOME

WELCOME

Thank you dear friends and followers for your visits, for your love and prayers for both myself and Freddie.
I really appreciate you taking the time to call in, view my artwork and leave such wonderful comments.
Sending you all love, hugs and blessings,

June xxx

Tuesday 18 January 2011

A dear friend wrote on her blog how she enjoyed the snow as a child, playing in the woods under a 'tunnel' of branches. Of course it took me back to my childhood and where I played. I grew up in what would now be called a 'slum area'.Tiny 2 up, 2 down houses, jammed against the one next door, and the one next to that. We lived in numbered Rows or alleys. In those days you knew all your neighbours who would always help out in any difficulty and you never locked doors. There were no trees or green grass.

The town where I lived was bombed badly in WW11 and we were lucky we had no direct hits, only bomb blast damage. The area where I lived was surrounded with bombed out houses, which was where we played . Some were completely flat so we used the bricks to make our own little 'rooms'  in their tiny back yards, complete with brick chairs, and a brick table covered with a piece of rag for a table cloth and holding an empty meat paste jar with a few weeds for decoration.

I remember clearly sifting through bomb rubble with my friends and finding maybe books, photographs or even a powder puff belonging to some poor bombed out family who may even have been killed.

We were not allowed on the beach which had been mined but my little best friend Marlene found a hole in the barbed wire and wondered onto the beach. All they found of her was a shoe...........

A lifetime ago and I am thankful always for having survived to have my own dear family and live in a better world. Oh that everybody could say the same.........

I've rambled on too much.....Hugs
                                    June xxx

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You didnt ramble at all June, i enjoy posts like these,you bring to life memories of your childhood and sharing with us is so special. I am so sorry about your friend Marlene, how terrible and the memory must be so vivid still. Please feel free to post more like this, i am sure i wont be the only one who enjoys your writing
hugs June xxx

Miss Hillbilly said...

It is so easy to stay in our own little world...and not realize the devastation that goes on around the rest of the world...from day to day.
It is amazing the life cycles that we go through to become who we are today.

Ozstuff said...

June, what a story you have to tell. You write so well with clarity and feeling. A chill went up my spine when I read about your little friend who was killed by a landmine. The sad thing is that, nearly 70 years on, children are still being maimed and killed in the same way. Keep writing!

Diane said...

Junie, what a remarkable narrative of your childhood memories! You write with such honesty and simplicity. It's amazing--and a gift--how children have a way of turning almost everything into grist for their imaginative mills: searching through rubble, looking for treasures, turning the detritus of war into an ersatz playground. Nevertheless, to have lived, let alone thrived, under such circumstances is evidence of your True Grit. Even little Marlene achieved a certain apotheosis, enshrined forever as the child lost to war in the memories of so many whose lives trudged forward into adulthood. What Marie says above is so true. Reminds me of the words of a Bob Dylan song, "when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?" Thanks for sharing, my dear friend!

Bill said...

Oh my word. How horrible. How do children ever survive what the world has done to them? And some of the memories are precious as you have shown us. Thank you for sharing your story.

Judy said...

Brought tears to my eyes to have lost your little friend so tragically. June, your memories are a pleasure to read, are you 'preserving' these snippets of your life, you have shared so many interesting stories! Along with your beautiful art imagine what a treasure of a book that would make - a real heirloom! I grew up in a '2 up - 2 down' house too, 'ooop north' in Lancashire!!