November 1940

A Memory of Sparkhill.

It was around the first or second week of November 1940 and I was still to be born. Mum and Dad [and me] lived at 252 Percy Road. Dad worked at the BSA and Mum was pregnant with me.
Mum had just made a pot of tea when the Air Raid warning sounded. Hitler's Luftwaffe were on their way probably to bomb the BSA.
My parents rushed to the Anderson Air Raid Shelter There was just enough time to pour two cups of tea before all hell broke loose. A stray Land mine made a direct hit on the shelter. Then silence.
My mother returned to consciousness still with the handle of the tea cup around her finger. She later told me that she thought that she was in heaven all she could hear was a bird singing away in November night. Dad was no where to be seen. She looked around every window in the house was shattered but there was the families pet Canary still chirping away despite Adolf's best attempts to see us off.
The rescue services arrived and Mum was stretchered to an waiting ambulance as she was loaded on to the ambulance she saw a man black from head to toe his clothes in tatters . It was my Dad.
Mum was taken to Sparkhill Swimming baths which I suppose acted as a sort of Aid Station. She was expected to give birth that night after such an ordeal. Stubborn as ever I hung on for another 2 weeks.
Already homeless and still to be born we were allocated a Council House in Yardley only to find that there was an unexploded bomb in the front garden. Without a home for the second time we were taken in by a friend of the family who lived in Handsworth and there on the 27th of November 1940 I was born.
We returned to Sparkhill even to Percy Road this time just a few doors away to number 258.. Mum and Dad continued to live there for well over 50 years . I left the Percy Road home in 1963 shortly after my wife gave birth to our eldest daughter at 258.
Dad died the old house and Mum now into her eighties continued to live there until around 1999 when she moved to sheltered accommodation in Moseley.
Sparkhill still holds many happy Memories , Greet School, Sparkhill Park,The old Claypits. . Corner shops Powells Halls Bodingtons Jordans all gone .
I could go one forever. Old friends some still around . Better save some other stories for another day.