Anne McCormick, 1941
VE Day Memories
Aunt Margaret with Veronica, Friend and Anne McCormick in front of air raid shelter, Castleford Yorkshire.
I remember parts of the day vividly because it was so exciting but so strange. We lived in Yorkshire and my parents took us by train to London so we could join in the celebrations. My sister and I, aged 5 and 7, had never been to London before and found it was so crowded and noisy. People seemed very happy, singing and dancing in the streets, climbing lampposts and jumping in the fountains in Trafalgar Square. However many of the buildings were damaged or completely destroyed, the ground covered in piles of rubble but bright with wild flowers. On the train home we shared our compartment with some Canadian soldiers.
They were very friendly and gave us some chewing gum, but after trying it for a while we were not impressed. We noticed that the solders, on removing it from their mouths, stored it behind their ears! We copied them but unfortunately it became entangled in our hair and on getting home my mother had to cut off chunks of our hair to remove i