It's Monday May 7th 1945. And it's nearly evening.
I'm sitting at the table in our dining room (which is really our living room). Quite a lot happens at this table. I do my homework here (I've done tonight's although I'm not sure I needed to). Mum, Dad and my sister Sheila write letters, especially to my brother Graham who's still in Italy. Mum does her darning here and sometimes lifts the Singer sewing machine up onto it to do seams on clothes or big things like curtains. Sheila uses it as well sometimes, when she's making dresses from patterns and that sort of thing. I'm not allowed to get anywhere near it. The needle could go right through your finger. Doesn't look to me anything like as dangerous as Dad's Home Guard rifles (he's still got three), or his revolver which I know is in his vest and pants drawer, but it's not worth arguing about because I'm not that interested. Although it IS quite good fun to turn the handle and hear everything whirring and see the needle going up and down and the material moving itself forward underneath it. I wonder how it does it.
Behind me, on either side of the fireplace, are Dad and Mum's leather armchairs. Dad's just got back from work and he's sitting in his, reading the newspaper and smoking his pipe. Sheila is upstairs, getting ready to go out, somewhere. She goes out a lot. To the Youth Club, dances, the ice rink in Birmingham. She's seventeen. Tonight she'll probably be meeting up with her friends to talk about what's happened today. Mum is probably in the kitchen, getting supper ready. So her chair is empty. I glance over my shoulder at it. About three weeks ago the morning newspaper seemed to be rather special. I didn't know why and I wasn't allowed to look at it and my parents wouldn't talk about it. Mum or Dad put it under Mum's armchair to keep it away from me. That wasn't a very good hiding place and, of course, the moment they were out of the way I grabbed it. It was all about one of those camps, concentration camps they call them. I had heard about them before. I think this one was called Belsen which our troops had liberated a few days earlier. The newspaper was full of dreadful photographs and descriptions. I read it all, every word. And I'll probably never forget it. It has just made us all hate the Germans even more than ever. If that was possible. It is easy for me – I have never met a German, except in my nightmares. But Dad had friends there before the war. I expect he is wondering what has happened to them and, if they are still alive, why they have done such awful things since he last saw them.
Every day, we have been getting nearer and nearer to Berlin. I read all about it in the paper every single day. And I had my birthday a month ago. Now I'm nine. My brother is still in Italy, he was fighting last week near Ravenna but everything there stopped a few days ago and we think he is OK. Last Wednesday we heard that Hitler was dead and that was just marvellous. Since then it's been obvious that we are going to win. But they have a new leader now. His name is Doenitz. He says he's not going to give up. And so we have been carrying on, not knowing when it is really going to happen. Or even if.
Anyway, I'm sitting here thinking about what went on this afternoon.
I was in the garden, mucking about. It's been a nice day. I had got back from school and then went outside. Just Mum in the house. Dad and Sheila not home from work. They've both got jobs at ICI at Witton. Don't think I was doing anything in particular. I like our garden and just being in it. Dad has done so much to make it beautiful and interesting. This was it not long after they had moved in, in 1931.
(That's my elder brother. I think it was his first day at Bishop Vesey's in Sutton). The house was brand new. Dad had just started on the paths, They were later done in concrete, marked to look like crazy paving. Tons and tons of it. Of course the garden's got quite neglected over the last few years because Dad has been so busy. He still talks about what it looked like before the war. (And we have colour photographs of it then). But it still looks pretty good to me and now, here we are in early May, and everything is sprouting and starting to flower. Even the spuds are beginning to show themselves.
This is another photo after a lot of work had been done. It's from about ten years ago, in 1935 or 1936. I am only showing it so you can see where I was, this afternoon - near the log at the end of the lawn.
(As I say, this is an old photograph, taken not long after Dad had done most of the work, about ten years ago. You can see the borders, the rockery, the paths, the swing which looks like the entrance to a church, the pool, Sheila's Wendy house which he built for her 7th or 8th birthday, some of the plants. What isn't there is The Dugout, our air raid shelter. It wasn't needed, then. Then Dad built it just beyond the log and the little cherry tree and I can just remember him doing it. We haven't been down in it for ages and it's starting to get a bit damp and smelly).
So that's where I am at that moment. Somewhere near the big log. I am looking back towards the house, into the sun. Nothing's happening. Then our neighbour, Mrs Bacon, appears and comes to the fence, holding a newspaper and calling out to my mum. Mum comes out of the house and goes over to her. I hear exactly what is said even though Mrs. Bacon is speaking quietly as she holds out the paper. This is all she says:
"Freda, it's all over".
Mum takes the paper and looks at it. They talk for a few minutes. There's no whoops of joy, no clapping of hands. Just quiet chat. I don't think to check if anyone is crying. Grown-ups don't normally do that. Mum did just once, which I told you about before. But you can never tell. Grown-ups are funny people. Perhaps there is the odd tear, again. I'm too far away to see. And anyway, they should be happy, not sad.
Then finally each of them walk away from the fence and go back inside.
Mrs Bacon is probably thinking about her husband. He's been in Malta for years. Now perhaps she will see him again, fairly soon. And Mum will certainly be thinking about my brother.
And that's the moment when I knew that the end had come. Tomorrow is VE Day. No school. Mr. Churchill will be on the wireless at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And in the evening there is a huge bonfire a little way up the road, here in Streetly, in a field just after Bridle Lane and Puddepha's corner shop. That'll be super. I may tell you about it afterwards.
And as for tonight, I'll go to bed eventually. Just like any other night. Then, after reading for a bit, I shall go to sleep with the world at peace. (Or at least our part of it - because the Japs are still there). That's what will be different. I wonder what it will feel like. I can't properly remember doing it before.
Chris