Interview with my great grandma Doreen, aged 94

I am Doreen Baxter, Great Grandma to Rosie Woods (11). I am 94 years old and was born in 1929, which means I was 10 years old when the war started and 16 years old when it finished.

Rosie is obviously going to ask me questions related to the war. I thought it needs me to explain where I lived at that time. So here goes!

I lived in a road of 124 houses in blocks of 6 and newly built. The address was 92 Grange Road, Sanderstead, Surrey. No postcodes or anything like that in those days! No phone or TV, just the radio and newspapers! The houses all had very small front gardens but then quite large back gardens.

We lived quite a short walk from the railway in one direction; this was Purley Oaks station, which was on the London to Brighton route. Also a short walk in the other direction, to the main road which was to Purley in one way and to Croydon in the other. Croydon Airport wasn't far away, which at times became a place the Germans bombed.

This Sanderstead and Purley area was not as built up as the area north of us and nearer London. South of us was more countryside but we were sort of in the middle. Still open places to walk and to enjoy that.

~What type of food could you eat? ~
Well rationing gradually came, starting with butter and meat in 1940. By 1942 sweets and chocolate! Then clothing! We were encouraged to get an allotment and grow our own vegetables. We had quite a large back garden and at the far end we grew strawberries, raspberries and runner beans. In the allotment we grew potatoes, carrots etc. The things that used to come by sea such as bananas and oranges were soon not available. We missed them - imagine not eating a banana for six whole years!

~Did you ever have to eat something you didn't like?~
No, never!

~Did you go with your mum to shop for food?~
Not often. Food was often delivered especially by the greengrocer who sold fresh fruit and vegetables.

~Did you ever get hungry but couldn't eat anything?~
No, never.

~Did you have an Anderson shelter in your garden?~
Yes. This was dug out and put in before the war started. Bernard, my 14 year old brother, and friends of his did most of the digging as my dad worked long hours.

~Did you ever wake up to a bomb siren?~
No, they were mostly at night when we were already in the shelter.

~What was it like going into the Anderson shelter?~
Well you just got used to it - I don't remember being cold at all.

~Did any bombs land near your house?~
Yes, but not very near. Our back windows were broken but they were covered with blackout panels and so no one was hurt. The bomb went off on the Post Office/Sorting Office on the main road. The houses opposite it got most of the blast but we were at the back of those houses, with their small back gardens, then a small piece of waste land and then our back garden before it got to our house. We all went to work or school and when we came home all the windows had fresh glass! We were told a lot of men had come over from Ireland to do this work.

~What was it like learning during the war?~
One thing that didn't help was that later in the war, when they started to bomb Kenley airdrome, we had to share our school building with the school near that airdrome as they shut it - so half a day for each school! Also I left school at 14 in 1943 and went on the train to work in London as a trainee typist.

~Did you ever have to go into the bomb shelter at school?~
Not very often because the first lots of air raids were at night time and we would be in the shelter in the garden.

~Did any of your friends get evacuated?~
Yes some and others went with family to safer areas. One lot went to Wales and another friend to relations in Scotland. I stayed at home!

~How long was the school day?~
Much the same as yours I think.