We kept calm, and carried on
PAULINE Smith (nee Griffiths), grew up in Tipton during the 1940s, and over the last couple of weeks has been sharing her memories of her very early days in Peel Street during the war.
This week we take a look at those days through the letters Pauline’s mother Vera wrote to her husband Jack, away fighting on the continent.
They offer a window into the realities of life on the home front; on the one hand, everyone was desperately hoping never to hear the bad news they all dreaded, and on the other, all the stops were pulled out to ensure life carried on as normally as possible; especially for the children.
Here is a selection, the first few of which show how everyone, from local business to the woman in the street, did all they could to make life as bearable, indeed entertaining, as possible. “November 10, 1943: “Tomorrow we are going to see Tommy Trinder at the Alhambra in The Bells Go Down, with James Mason. “October 28, 1943: “Yesterday I took Pauline to the pictures to see the colured film Springtime in the Rockies, and she enjoyed it ever so much, and has been doing Carmen Miranda’s dance all day. The way she holds her hands up amuses me and her fingers are all placed out. “January 4, 1944: “We went to the pictures yesterday and we enjoyed it very much. Pauline loves the news the best and she sits in her seat so interested. “May 11, 1944: “Tonight we went to the pictures to see The Four Feathers, another old picture but very good. Pauline loved it very much and was ever so concerned about the two who go thirsty in the desert.
“After the first half the Tipton TC (Town Councillor) and his wife were brought onto the stage by Mr Bolton the Mayor, and he said a few words. Then someone gave her a big bouquet and they were red tulips and white flowers.
Worries
“Coming down the road Pauline said to me, ‘Oh Mummy, weren’t those lovely apples in that lady’s basket’. We had a good laugh I can tell you. She says some funny things.”
This event must have taken place at the Alhambra, Pauline’s brother John Griffiths told her, and whatever the civic occasion was it must have been arranged by the manager Frank Bills, through his connections with the local council.
Though the war had begun to have less impact on the home front in the later stages, Vera’s letters from the summer of 1944 show just how sick with worry everyone was as the Allies made their surprise push into northern France:
“June 7, 1944:
“Sorry I couldn’t write yesterday ... but I am afraid D Day knocked us all crooked. I am sure my tummy was awful. Harold said I had ‘invasion jitters’. I kept saying to myself ‘how I hope Arthur [Vera’s brother-in-law serving with the Desert Rats] isn’t in this lot.
“How did you feel when you heard the news darling? Everyone you met here was either crying or had been. We listened to the news on the wireless with tense faces and no one did any work. They just couldn’t settle to do it.
“Today there hasn’t been much change in the news so far. I bet Leah [Pauline’s aunt who worked as a nurse all through the war] will be very busy now. They have landed some wounded so the papers say.
“I only hope we can soon get it over with as least casualties as possible. It’s your mother I thought of yesterday, I bet she was worried. I had a letter from her on Monday. I haven’t heard from your Uncle Jack (a musician in Jack Payne’s Band). He will be going to France I guess to entertain the troops, and how he loves his work.
“The sight of the telegraph boy in the street caused much consternation as bad news was bound to arrive at somebody’s house.”
Before too long of course the Allies had the upper hand and by winter, though the fighting continued, the end was in sight. This would be the last Christmas of the war, but young Pauline was focusing all her attention on the New Year, when she would be going to see that season’s pantomime, up the hill in Dudley: “December 19, 1944: “We’ve booked at the Hippodrome to see Aladdin on January 4th, so think about us at the matineé Pauline should love it as there are a troupe of children dancing, and she loves dancing. (While we were waiting in the queue for booking she suddenly decided she didn’t want to go)
Excitement
“January 2, 1945: “She is getting more excited about going to see Aladdin on Thursday. When I told her it was only one more day, she gamboled straight over in bed, frightened me to death she did. “January 4, 1945: “Today we have been to the Hippodrome and Pauline did enjoy it. So did Mother and me on the whole. We had a good laugh at Widow Twankey played by Sonny Jenks. He was good.
“Pauline sang as loud as anyone too. She loved it all except the cave scene and she was a bit scared of that. It was a good show and the place was packed.
“What a game to get on a bus when we came out. Oh dear, there were hundreds of people and they all seemed to be going the way we were and also wanted the same bus.
“Anyway we soon arrived home and to my joy I found three air folders from you.”
Again according to John Griffiths, this pantomime was presented by S.H. Newsome Productions and starred Avril Angers and Alec Pleon alongside Sonny Jenks. It was a great success and ran for six weeks.
The end had been in sight for some time, but finally, in the spring of 1945, it was all over in Europe. Such was the relief and excitement that young Pauline had to have her ears covered, even in the house: “May 8, 1945: “What a game they are having at the top of our street. This is VE Day and according to the sing-song they are having a rare to-do.
“They are singing to the top of their voices and I had to stay with Pauline in bed with the sheet to her ear to deafen the noise.
“Pauline is amazed at the whole proceedings. They have a bonfire for the kiddies and I took her up this afternoon but she didn’t care for it. She couldn’t understand why the fire was outside. Still she says she doesn’t want to go to the tea party if it is by the fire tomorrow. The library is all floodlit so they tell me and I shall keep Pauline up to take her to see it tomorrow. She will be surprised I bet.
“From the bottom of the garden we can see that Dudley Castle is all floodlit and Harold says that it is lovely in Dudley. It will be a treat to get the blackout lifted. However Mother cut the hedge yesterday and today she has a sore throat. That is how VE Day was spent.”
Vera evidently did a wonderful job of making Pauline’s wartime childhood as normal as was feasibly possible, because with hindsight, Pauline remembers life being relatively unaffected by the conflict.
Dolls
“The war didn’t seem to halt a lot,” she says. “Not at my age anyway.
“I liked the buses; I had a conductress uniform and a Post Office set – very popular and much sought after. Sitting with my dolls Teddy and Monty I would issue tickets to them. ‘Two to the boundary’, and in imagination travel past West Brom Athletics Ground.
“People were as happy as possible in the circumstances and kept as active as they could.”
It was a little more trying for the adults, of course, and even for the youngsters on occasion.
“Make Do and Mend had its drawbacks,” says Pauline.
“Woolly jumpers were unravelled and knitted up again. I would stand there, arms outstretched, while Nanny wound the wool round my fingers and thumb to make a fresh hank. I hated the job, so boring.
“My mother once wrote in once of her letters: ‘I would like a new dress that hasn’t been something else before!’”