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. Instead of going to the pub in the evenings, Grandad would join Mum and they would go next door to play dominoes. Granny stayed home with my brothers because playing games like dominoes was something she didn’t agree with. However, I wanted to go with Granddad, and so I went to the Watts’- and spent most of the evening sitting on his lap trying to put his tiles in a row.

Bombing intensified, we heard sirens more often and several events where air fights could be heard in the skies which I believed to be just across the river. As I grew I realized they really were further away. Search lights appeared, and I watched their criss-cross pattern dance over the skies as I was going to sleep. One day some men appeared in the Watts’ garden. They dug a hole into the steep bank beside the path which led to the back yard. When they left Mum and Gran went to have tea, and came home to tell what was happening. When the men came back they would put metal all around the hole and it would be a shelter for us. We would run into the shelter when we heard the siren, and we all would be safe. Mostly I remember the shiny, ribbed doors.

A few days later Granny and Mum started a conversation over the fence with Mrs. Watts. Granny wanted to know how we would get into the shelter, and Mrs. Watts said that of course Mr. Watts would be in charge. Mum said Grandad should do it because he was part of the village guards, and knew about lights showing. This led to an argument which got louder and louder and Granny and Mum stomred away, with Mrs. Watts shouting after them that perhaps we wouldn’t be allowed in at all.