Air raid shelters. Life in Stockport,

I was born in a house that belonged to a mill owner, a small two up and two down, 2 Mill Place, off Heaward street Brinksway, Stockport. The property was very old, we had no electricity, just a small gas mantle in the living room, we took night lights on a saucer in the kitchen and the bedrooms at night. Today they are called tea lights. We didn’t have hot water or an inside toilet, we shared the outside toilet that was down a yard with a neighbour. Three toilets between six houses, not a very nice situation especially in winter and the blackout. I was born on the 2^nd of January the year 1941, Rose Marie Littler, I think my mam must have just seen that film Rosemarie. Mind you I think it is better than some of today’s names. I do have some memories of the air raid shelters, some funny and some very distressing, even though I was only four when the war ended I remember ever thing, even better than I can remember what I had for lunch yesterday. When the alert sirens went off every one would stop what they were doing and go to the shelters , I remember one man took his chickens in with him, he needed them for the eggs.

A story went round about a lady who lived in the neighbourhood who had very long hair that was plaited . The tale was that her husband threaded her plaits through the mangle machine that was in the back yard, and threatened the children that if any of them let her out, they would get in trouble when he came back from the pub, but of course if the alert sirens went off some one had to free her quickly.

Our nearest cinema which at that time its proper name The Brinksway Pictorium, nick named the Bug Hut, was only a five minute walk from where I lived. We got more entertainment out of the people who were in the crowd then the film they were showing. There were two local men who didn’t seem to like each other and as soon as a film came on they would start to shout over to each other causing a disturbance, then the usherette would put the lights on and spray something over these two men and anyone else that was in the firing line,

There was an advert for Pears soap showing a lady smiling washing her hands. I thought that she was smiling at me and bashfully I smiled back, I said to my mam "that lady always smiles at me", I always wondered why my mam laughed when I said that.

Our day out was a walk down to the fishing pond, we would walk down the river bank pass the bridge that led to Gorsey bank, there were many parts of the path that had broken away and you could see the river below you, I was terrified of the river, it claimed many young childrens lives. When we eventually arrived safely at the fishing pond , we would sit and have our butties, mainly jam, and our bottles of water, " we knew how to live it up.! There was a chap named Georgie he always called out to my mam "give us a kiss Kathleen," My mam laughed she didn’t take any offence to Georgie He was harmless, he saved many children from drowning.

Some times he would take a bar of soap in the pond and have a wash, asking if any one wanted to share his soap, it was all innocent banter, every body loved Georgie. When every one was ready to go home Georgie would make sure all the children got safely over the holes in the footpath, then we would hear his voice in the distance as he was on his way home say give us a kiss Kathleen.

                                                              by Marie Staniforth