Stories
Memories of "BATH TIME" - circa 1941!
Not many of you reading this will remember as far back as 1941! In those
very days we were at war, fighting alone to save the world as we knew
and loved it. We were living just to the north of a great British city,
Liverpool, home of the Reds and more importantly the Liver Birds, which
can still be seen in all their glory today!
As Liverpool was one of the main ports of entry for goods to keep Great
Britain going, from around the world, the Luftwaffe spent a lot of time
trying to bomb it to a standstill The aircraft usually flying over our
house at around 1 a.m., travelling out over the Irish Sea, before making
their bombing run over the port and city, before heading back home.
So bath time, in our tin bath in front of the kitchen range was usually
about 7'o'clock and was an extremely important part of the week, as we
were only able to have one bath a week!
This particular night, mid winter and freezing cold the bath was dragged
in from the shed in the garden and was then filled with steaming hot
water from the range, where the kettle, pans and pots had been simmering
for some time. These were emptied into the bath and in I hopped in,
scalding myself in the process, but as water was very scarce and
rationed, there was no way that I was going to waste the wonderful
feeling of being enveloped in a steaming hot wet blanket.
My Mum scrubbed me and then grabbed a towel off the range in which she
enveloped me, before hopping into the bath herself and having a good
soak, knees up to her chin. As my grandfather, Pop and grandmother,
Gran, still had to have a 'go' she didn't wait soaking too long and just
as she was getting out, off went the sirens and we heard the drone of
aircraft engines overhead!
I still in my towel, Mum grabbing another towel off the range,
accompanied by both my Pop and Gran, headed off into the garden to go
into our shelter. It was b…freezing, with a scattering of snow on the
ground and Mum and I were soon shivering fit to knock the shelter down!
Pop being Pop, decided enough was enough and headed out of the shelter
to go and grab some clothes from the house for us. All hell was letting
lose outside, blasting bombs, the Luftwaffe being attacked by our boys
from Woodvale with the chattering of machine guns, the sound of falling
masonry and off goes Pop, before anyone could so, "No way Jose!".
After what seemed like a very long time but was probably no more than
fifteen minutes or so, back he came, carrying not clothes but a
cylindrical thing he'd found in the garden, not far from the shelter!
Page 2 Contd. Bath time!
As Pop had fought in the Boer and First World Wars, he'd never seen an
'incendiary' before and wondered what it was!
Mum being an ambulance driver had seen too many and nearly had a fit!
She grabbed it, ran outside and dumped it as far from the shelter as she
could and ran back inside, having lost her towel in the rush, just as
the b... thing went off. Causing no little damage to the shelter and our
hearing and our house which lost most of its windows, a couple of doors
and as I found out when going back inside, had ruined the bath as it was
full of dust and bits of crockery!
When I could hear again, I asked if I could get back into the bath, to
defrost and try and to get warm!
Pop said that if Hitler could have heard me just then he'd give up and
find somewhere else to attack!
I couldn't understand at the time, why they were all giggling! And as a
rider, it has taken me some considerable time to forgive the Luftwaffe
for ruining one of the joys of the week back in 1941! (At least it was
normally a joy, dependant on how dirty I'd got myself beforehand, as if
I was too dirty, I had to go in test, which happened more often than
not, I have to confess - most unfair, I'm sure you will all agree!).
by Mike Morgan.