Remembering - Then and Now

During these days of remembering, I have been doing just that.  I was born during WW 2 and so have limited actual memories of my own but it's strange how some things stick in your mind.  I have a vague recollection of having to leave the house and take cover in the shelter outside whenever the siren sounded because planes were flying overhead at night.  As a toddler, I wasn't aware of the real danger.  It was more of an adventure.  I remember the blackout blinds at the windows and when we had to put the lights on as little as possible.  I remember the gas lights on the walls of the living room that seemed to cast strange shadows everywhere.  There are other memories of gas masks and sirens.  Even after the war had ended, I would run into the house afraid whenever an aeroplane flew overhead.  Over time things change and we do forget about disturbed nights when you had to run for shelter.  Nowadays we tend to use excessive energy on lighting our homes (and our paths, driveways and gardens)   Aeroplanes overhead now signify holidays abroad and good times, certainly nothing to be afraid of.


My Dad was a miner and so his work was deemed necessary to the war effort so he didn't join others as a soldier.  Instead as well as his regular job as a miner, producing the necessary coal, he had to do some work as a civilian so he was enlisted in the Fire Brigade while one of his brothers had to work as a porter in the hospital.  Two jobs but paid for one, all to help the nation.  Nowadays people might have two jobs for purely selfish gain to supplement their income in order to acquire more stuff and have more exotic holidays.  Money was always a bit tight so Dad used to make our toys (in the little spare time he had)  We had a beautiful, big dolls' house, a rocking horse and scooters each, all made out of wood while Mam would make things to put into the dolls' house.  How things have changed over the years.  How many children (or parents for that matter) would be quite content with homemade toys?


I remember one day my mother heard through the grapevine that there were some bananas for sale at the greengrocers in the town.  So off she went with all the family's ration books to use our food coupons to buy some fruit.  We stood in the queue for about half and hour and  were rewarded with the opportunity of buying a pound (weight) of bananas.  You could only buy what your coupon allowance permitted.  What a difference now!  I can go to the local supermarket and buy how much I want of whatever fruit or vegetable I like from just about anywhere in the world whenever I want.  I don't need to queue for half an hour.  I just go around and help myself to what I want.  I can even get it delivered to my house.

My Mam, Dad, elder brother and sister (my younger sister was born almost at the end of the decade) and me all lived with my grandma in a large 3 storey house along with my great grandma, four generations all together.  Next door to us another family of a woman and her 3 children also lived with relatives.  Her husband and my uncle (my mother's brother) were away doing their bit for the country but I can remember clearly the day my uncle arrived back and I saw him for the first time.  Sadly the gentleman whose family lived next door didn't make it.  So while we were happy there was a poor widow with 3 young children facing the future without the man of the house.  One of my Dad's brothers had been a prisoner of the Japanese on the infamous Siam railway.  He also came home safely and went on to live well into his 90s.  It is not just the soldiers who suffer.  For every one who doesn't make it, there is a family who has to face the future without him/her.


Lest we forget.  Let's remember the struggles, the danger, the make-do-and-mend attitude, limited resources in many areas of life, the challenges faced on a daily basis by those on the front line and those who remained at home to keep things ticking over.  Thank God for those who survived.  Cherish what we have now, taking nothing for granted.  Everything has a price.  We live the way we do today because others paid a high price.  But if we don't remember and learn, if we go on fighting wars and killing each other, if we take all our affluence and abundance for granted without a second thought, then they gave their all for nothing.  They did what they did so that it wouldn't happen again.  They aren't here to struggle for us again.  It's up to us to honour their memory by living and striving for peace and to learn to share the one planet we have with tolerance.  One world, one humanity, one life.  Let's make it work LEST WE FORGET.
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