This page showcases stories written by the Thorley Poet.  These include stories about her childhood in England as well as more recent stories in the USA.

STRAFING

As we walked home from school that day, those of us who lived on Thorley Street stayed close together. The morning had been difficult, with air raid sirens screaming twice, planes growling in the distance. Thankfully none sounded very close, but frightened us in the classroom anyway.

GEOFFREY AND GODFREY

They came to our school for a short time as evacuees. They said they were not brothers, but from the same school, and their grey woolen well-pressed -looking uniforms said that their school was a posh one.

BEAUTIFUL BOTTLE

When it came close to Christmas, just after I turned six, a beautiful bottle appeared in the crystal bowl on the sideboard.

POLIO

Early next spring we began hearing about a new danger. In school and at home. A frightening thing called polio.

THE SHELTER

Mr. and Mrs. Watts lived in the cottage next to ours. Sometimes they were great friends and sometimes they quarreled and one or the other would march indoors in a huff. When the war began, they put differences aside, and it was a nice time between our two houses.

Spring salad

Aunt Margie lived in Cherry Tree Gardens, and I went to stay with her one weekend. I remember shiny skin on her face, a nice smile, and dark hair that was rolled into a sausage shape at the back of her neck.

Doodle-Bug

After tea, we went out into the garden because the weather was so nice. We stood on the path where on one side was an old table full of jars of cooling, fresh made gooseberry jam. A noisy wasp buzzed here and there among the paper-topped jars. On the other side of the path was a tall cabbage-rose bush, which had dropped some of its huge pink petals.

Evacuee’s Story

One of the evacuee families that stayed with us were the Poes , (I’m not sure how the name was spelled). The parents stayed with us, and their two sons, quite a lot older than me, stayed with our next door neighbors. l don’t remember much about the boys, but Mr and Mrs Poe were my favorite visitors.

Knowing the code

And after all, I had learned the code. The kids in school had said it worked every time, and Americans liked little kids, so they would be happy if we used the code.