Growing Up - Childhood Memories

I was born in Elm Park Avenue in 1937 and have memories of the Second World War and after. I can remember during the war, especially during the Blitz, bedding down with my mother under the stairs in a steel wire cage, and on hearing the Air Raid siren having to go to the shelter at the bottom of the garden. One night there was a loud bang and the bunk bed in the shelter collapsed. I can remember the doodle-bugs later on and watching the flames go out before they dived into the ground. Once I even saw a Victory Roll performed right over where I was living. After the invasion of Europe I can remember the convoys that use to come alone Elm Par Avenue on their way to Hornchurch Aerodrome, they had to be checked in Abbs Cross Lane by the railway bridge before proceeding, once there was a convoy of over 200 vehicles. In the winter of 1944 I and my friends used to have snowball fights with the troops, mainly Americans. I can also remember one big fog when a bus was abandoned for 2 days outside my home, a new playground for a while. One thing I will always remember is the VE Day celebration, it was spontaneous, it was just an outburst of relief. Whilst the mothers were setting up the tables and preparing the food, we the local boys were out scouting for fuel for a bonfire. There was a war-time fire station in Abbs Cross Lane together with an ARP hut, they disappeared for the bonfire. In the ARP hut I found a tin of sugar and a tin of tea, the bonfire could wait, I took the goodies home to my mum. We built a large fire as householders disposed of their unwanted rubbish, in fact the fire was so large that a hole was burnt into the roadway, fortunately there was not much traffic in those days. The other year I visited the area. The bus still runs at the same times as it did before, but most of the places I remember have changed, the fields have a school on them, the allotments are now covered with houses, and the trees that I used to climb all gone. We did not have a lot in those times but we were able to make do with what we had and use our imaginations.