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Title INTERVIEW WITH MRS VERA DORMER

Description

Vera was 12 years old when the war started.

?I?d left the junior school at Bury Mill End at 11 years of age. I sat for the Hemel Hempstead Grammar School examination but didn?t get through, so I went to the Central School which was situated at Two Waters. I was only there for twelve months when the new Crabtree Lane Senior School was built. Girls were downstairs and boys had the classrooms upstairs. I was there until I was fourteen when I left. I went to work and my first job was at the Hygienic Dairies which was situated in Wood Lane, now St Albans Road (the dual carriageway). I worked 5? days a week plus 11am to 2pm on Sundays for the princely sum of 15 shillings (75 pence).

When the air raid siren went off we had to march out of the school in an orderly fashion, across the playground and into our shelters. They were dark, damp and dank ? they were horrible. We used to have sit on wooden benches and the teacher for our class would read us a story. We sometimes had to sit under these conditions for about an hour. To use one of today?s expressions, BORING. It could have been much worse ? we were very lucky in many respects.

There were a lot of evacuees in Hemel and at my school. The proper pupils would take their lessons in the morning at their own school, and then in the afternoon they would go to the church halls or church rooms, so that the evacuees could have the school turn. It wasn?t very good, not the right environment to learn. Fortunately we didn?t have to have any evacuees as we?d already got a lady living with us who lived in the spare bedroom.?

Vera was frightened of being bombed though Hemel Hempstead was very fortunate as few bombs were dropped locally.

?I always remember September 3rd, 1939, when war was declared. I?d gone along to the little general shop at the bottom of Astley Road to get something and the siren went. I was absolutely petrified. I ran back along the road, it was only a matter of 500 yards, I suppose, and promptly dived under the kitchen table thinking we were going to be bombed. I can still remember it quite clearly now. I think they were probably practising, or to let people know what the air raid siren sounded like. There was one nasty incident down in Belswains Lane when nine people were killed and two houses demolished. On another occasion there was one dropped in Astley Road where three houses were demolished and one person killed. The German bombers just used to sort of ? if they?d got any bombs left and were trying to get home ? they just used to jettison the bombs anywhere to get rid of them. I know on quite a lot of occasions when my sister and I were in bed together (there were no single beds in those days) we used to hear the German aircraft coming over and it was a terrible, awful drone of the engines. We used to lie there frightened to death and then once the noise had stopped you could start breathing again until the next wave came over. Not very nice but something you had to put up with.?

Rationing was a problem for Vera and her family.

?It was awful. In fact, when I think back now, I don?t know how my Mum fed us ? there were four of us in the family.

I remember coming out of the factory where I worked one Saturday morning, and just along the Broadway there was a greengrocers called Leago's and I used to go in there and get vegetables and things like that. I was one of their customers. One day I realised there was a queue. ?Oh great, I?m going to get on the end of this queue.? Mrs Leago came out and she looked along the queue and she said, ?Vera, come along, you?re one of my customers. You don?t need to queue.? I came out of the queue ? I thought ?Oh dear, Oh dear? and went straight in the shop and I suppose got about four bananas. But that walk of shame! It was dreadful! You could imagine all the other people standing there. What were their thoughts, I wonder?

We had a bit of a back garden but not all that much and we used to have some chickens to get the eggs. Mum used to save all the potato peelings and cabbage stalks and they used to be boiled up and I think they mixed them with some bran or something special to make a feed for them. Bread! Oh, I don?t know about bread, that was all rationed. When I stand down at the Water Gardens now and see the mums and children throwing slices of bread in for the ducks, I think ?Oh my goodness, what you could do with that.? One day, I was in the Water Gardens and there were these two young mums with a great big bag of bread and all these lovely slices of bread going into the water. I thought to myself, ?Oh what a waste.? They could have made a nice bread pudding with it.?

Clothing coupons were also a problem. Girls who didn?t have enough coupons for stockings coloured their bare legs.

?There was a shortage of stockings. If we were going to a dance I used to paint my legs with some sort of tanning lotion and if you didn?t get it right it looked all streaky. It was awful. I know one year I didn?t have enough coupons for stockings and consequently I had terrible chilblains that winter, where my feet had got so cold.?

Clothes were also hard to come by.

?When you?re going to a dance you don?t want to keep wearing the same dress all the time. We used to like to have a change of dresses. If I wanted shoes I would go to Watford on a Saturday to a shop called Peter Lord?s, and I know on one occasion I wanted a pair of red shoes, and I wanted a size 6 but they had only got a size 5?. So I squeezed my feet into these 5??s. I lived to regret it.

I worked in a needlework factory and they used to have remnants of cloth for sale. I had one or two of those and made dresses myself. How I did, I can?t think, but I did.?

Despite the hardship, there were also good times. There were dances with soldiers who were stationed in the area or

?Some of the little halls, local halls like Leverstock Green hall or Cupid Green, they used to have servicemen for dances and we would go. But we had to go on our bikes. You think, today, biking to a dance! We used to prop our bikes up along the side of the hut (the huts were more like a big shed), lock them up and then go in for the dance. Then you had to bike home. Everything was blacked out. There were no lights, except when there was moonlight, and of course there was more chance of an air raid when it was moonlight because it was nice and clear for the bombers.

When we came home from the dances or anywhere, there were all these soldiers about but there was never any trouble. We weren?t frightened. We didn?t like coming out in the dark and going home in the dark but were not frightened like we are today of being out in the dark on your own.

If we could get tickets for the Guild House, that?s John Dickinson?s Guild House, they used to have some nice dances there. They sometimes had a military band playing and the musicians would come in a lorry. We would get outside at quarter to twelve when the dance finished; it wasn?t allowed to go into Sunday so it was a quarter to twelve finish. We would ask the driver if he would give us a lift up into Marlowes. We would clamber up into the back of the lorry with often the soldiers giving us a pull. We used to bus down to Apsley on the last bus to Watford, which was nine o?clock. My Dad would say ?I don?t know about you going to a dance, it?s bed time.? At nine o?clock! I don?t know what he?d say now, - dancing ?til 3am or whatever. Any rate, when we got up to the top of Bridge Street we used to bang on the floor or shout out, and the lorry would stop and we?d jump down and then walk home.?

There were also dances at the American air base at Bovingdon.

?There were dances at Bovingdon and a lot of the girls used to go. They would provide trucks for the girls to get back into the town. I think I went once. At St Mary?s Hall in George Street they?d made the hall over to the American air force so they had a club they could relax in. A lot of the girls used to go. I have recollections that it was invitation only. They had a lovely time, learning how to jitterbug.?

Vera also has clear memories of the V-E Day celebrations.

?I went to Harrow to stay with my two cousins. We went to London the day peace was declared in May 1945. That was just amazing up there, everybody was partying, no going mad, but so relieved to think the war was all over. But of course it wasn?t all over because they were still fighting out in the Far East.

We made our way to Buckingham Palace. It would have been Queen Elizabeth and King George VI who came out onto the palace balcony with other members of the royal family. I think we camped out for the night in my cousin?s friends? living room. It was a good night and everybody was so joyous to think the war was nearly over. But it wasn?t the end of the rationing and shortages. That still carried on for a long time.?

Interview by Fiona Wright and James Moss

Keywords Crabtree Lane Schol, Marlowes Baptist church, air raids, rationingAmericans, Bovingdon, VE Day

Collection Women at War

Place Hemel Hempstead

Year 1939 - 1945

Conflict World War Two

File type html

Record ID number 146

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Title	INTERVIEW WITH MRS VERA DORMER
Description	Vera was 12 years old when the war started. ?I?d left the junior school at Bury Mill End at 11 years of age. I sat for the Hemel Hempstead Grammar School examination but didn?t get through, so I went to the Central School which was situated at Two Waters. I was only there for twelve months when the new Crabtree Lane Senior School was built. Girls were downstairs and boys had the classrooms upstairs. I was there until I was fourteen when I left. I went to work and my first job was at the Hygienic Dairies which was situated in Wood Lane, now St Albans Road (the dual carriageway). I worked 5? days a week plus 11am to 2pm on Sundays for the princely sum of 15 shillings (75 pence). When the air raid siren went off we had to march out of the school in an orderly fashion, across the playground and into our shelters. They were dark, damp and dank ? they were horrible. We used to have sit on wooden benches and the teacher for our class would read us a story. We sometimes had to sit under these conditions for about an hour. To use one of today?s expressions, BORING. It could have been much worse ? we were very lucky in many respects. There were a lot of evacuees in Hemel and at my school. The proper pupils would take their lessons in the morning at their own school, and then in the afternoon they would go to the church halls or church rooms, so that the evacuees could have the school turn. It wasn?t very good, not the right environment to learn. Fortunately we didn?t have to have any evacuees as we?d already got a lady living with us who lived in the spare bedroom.? Vera was frightened of being bombed though Hemel Hempstead was very fortunate as few bombs were dropped locally. ?I always remember September 3rd, 1939, when war was declared. I?d gone along to the little general shop at the bottom of Astley Road to get something and the siren went. I was absolutely petrified. I ran back along the road, it was only a matter of 500 yards, I suppose, and promptly dived under the kitchen table thinking we were going to be bombed. I can still remember it quite clearly now. I think they were probably practising, or to let people know what the air raid siren sounded like. There was one nasty incident down in Belswains Lane when nine people were killed and two houses demolished. On another occasion there was one dropped in Astley Road where three houses were demolished and one person killed. The German bombers just used to sort of ? if they?d got any bombs left and were trying to get home ? they just used to jettison the bombs anywhere to get rid of them. I know on quite a lot of occasions when my sister and I were in bed together (there were no single beds in those days) we used to hear the German aircraft coming over and it was a terrible, awful drone of the engines. We used to lie there frightened to death and then once the noise had stopped you could start breathing again until the next wave came over. Not very nice but something you had to put up with.? Rationing was a problem for Vera and her family. ?It was awful. In fact, when I think back now, I don?t know how my Mum fed us ? there were four of us in the family. I remember coming out of the factory where I worked one Saturday morning, and just along the Broadway there was a greengrocers called Leago's and I used to go in there and get vegetables and things like that. I was one of their customers. One day I realised there was a queue. ?Oh great, I?m going to get on the end of this queue.? Mrs Leago came out and she looked along the queue and she said, ?Vera, come along, you?re one of my customers. You don?t need to queue.? I came out of the queue ? I thought ?Oh dear, Oh dear? and went straight in the shop and I suppose got about four bananas. But that walk of shame! It was dreadful! You could imagine all the other people standing there. What were their thoughts, I wonder? We had a bit of a back garden but not all that much and we used to have some chickens to get the eggs. Mum used to save all the potato peelings and cabbage stalks and they used to be boiled up and I think they mixed them with some bran or something special to make a feed for them. Bread! Oh, I don?t know about bread, that was all rationed. When I stand down at the Water Gardens now and see the mums and children throwing slices of bread in for the ducks, I think ?Oh my goodness, what you could do with that.? One day, I was in the Water Gardens and there were these two young mums with a great big bag of bread and all these lovely slices of bread going into the water. I thought to myself, ?Oh what a waste.? They could have made a nice bread pudding with it.? Clothing coupons were also a problem. Girls who didn?t have enough coupons for stockings coloured their bare legs. ?There was a shortage of stockings. If we were going to a dance I used to paint my legs with some sort of tanning lotion and if you didn?t get it right it looked all streaky. It was awful. I know one year I didn?t have enough coupons for stockings and consequently I had terrible chilblains that winter, where my feet had got so cold.? Clothes were also hard to come by. ?When you?re going to a dance you don?t want to keep wearing the same dress all the time. We used to like to have a change of dresses. If I wanted shoes I would go to Watford on a Saturday to a shop called Peter Lord?s, and I know on one occasion I wanted a pair of red shoes, and I wanted a size 6 but they had only got a size 5?. So I squeezed my feet into these 5??s. I lived to regret it. I worked in a needlework factory and they used to have remnants of cloth for sale. I had one or two of those and made dresses myself. How I did, I can?t think, but I did.? Despite the hardship, there were also good times. There were dances with soldiers who were stationed in the area or ?Some of the little halls, local halls like Leverstock Green hall or Cupid Green, they used to have servicemen for dances and we would go. But we had to go on our bikes. You think, today, biking to a dance! We used to prop our bikes up along the side of the hut (the huts were more like a big shed), lock them up and then go in for the dance. Then you had to bike home. Everything was blacked out. There were no lights, except when there was moonlight, and of course there was more chance of an air raid when it was moonlight because it was nice and clear for the bombers. When we came home from the dances or anywhere, there were all these soldiers about but there was never any trouble. We weren?t frightened. We didn?t like coming out in the dark and going home in the dark but were not frightened like we are today of being out in the dark on your own. If we could get tickets for the Guild House, that?s John Dickinson?s Guild House, they used to have some nice dances there. They sometimes had a military band playing and the musicians would come in a lorry. We would get outside at quarter to twelve when the dance finished; it wasn?t allowed to go into Sunday so it was a quarter to twelve finish. We would ask the driver if he would give us a lift up into Marlowes. We would clamber up into the back of the lorry with often the soldiers giving us a pull. We used to bus down to Apsley on the last bus to Watford, which was nine o?clock. My Dad would say ?I don?t know about you going to a dance, it?s bed time.? At nine o?clock! I don?t know what he?d say now, - dancing ?til 3am or whatever. Any rate, when we got up to the top of Bridge Street we used to bang on the floor or shout out, and the lorry would stop and we?d jump down and then walk home.? There were also dances at the American air base at Bovingdon. ?There were dances at Bovingdon and a lot of the girls used to go. They would provide trucks for the girls to get back into the town. I think I went once. At St Mary?s Hall in George Street they?d made the hall over to the American air force so they had a club they could relax in. A lot of the girls used to go. I have recollections that it was invitation only. They had a lovely time, learning how to jitterbug.? Vera also has clear memories of the V-E Day celebrations. ?I went to Harrow to stay with my two cousins. We went to London the day peace was declared in May 1945. That was just amazing up there, everybody was partying, no going mad, but so relieved to think the war was all over. But of course it wasn?t all over because they were still fighting out in the Far East. We made our way to Buckingham Palace. It would have been Queen Elizabeth and King George VI who came out onto the palace balcony with other members of the royal family. I think we camped out for the night in my cousin?s friends? living room. It was a good night and everybody was so joyous to think the war was nearly over. But it wasn?t the end of the rationing and shortages. That still carried on for a long time.? Interview by Fiona Wright and James Moss
Keywords	Crabtree Lane Schol, Marlowes Baptist church, air raids, rationingAmericans, Bovingdon, VE Day
Collection	Women at War
Place	Hemel Hempstead
Year	1939 - 1945
Conflict	World War Two
File type	html
Record ID number	146