Hi everyone

I wasn't going to email you today as it is a Bank Holiday. BUT I just wanted to say 'Have a lovely VE Day.' The news all day has been so heartening and inspiring. 

Goodness knows what all those still with us think 75 years down the line.

My mum was 7 when the war started. I told you my grandad was a miner. They lived in Newcastle, which was big in coal and in shipbuilding. My grandad was highly trained in that he was the one who wound the lift down to the bottom of the pit. So he stayed at home and helped get the coal to keep industry going. My grandad decided that my mum was not going to be evacuated and that if anything happened, 'it would happen to all of them'. She did not go to school for two years (so we have a way to go to keep up on that one!) and she didn't see any friends as they all were evacuated.  My mum tells me that one of her biggest problems was that there was no chocolate to buy. She likes her chocolate, does my mum. When the war was over the first chocolate she had was a Crunchie. :)

Mum remembers the zeppelins over the river Tyne. ​They were there to put off the German aircraft that were trying to bomb the shipyards. When I was a very little girl, my grandad used to take me to Newcastle (Wallsend actually.... it is where the Roman wall ends .... hence Walls End :) to stay for the week and I remember being utterly fascinated with the huge shipyards which even then were declining. He took me to the local park where I can particularly remember enjoying paddling in the swimming pool, apart from when I got stung by a wasp.

When we went on holiday to Wallsend, my grandad took me to Whitley Bay where I went on the Shuggy Boats and on the horses along the beach.

I really hope you have a lovely VE Day. Be strong and safe.

Mrs. P :)