38. George Forrest .. further memories - the war years - buying a spitfire

George Forrest

Bearing in mind that I was only 4 years old when war broke out, I can only really recall snippets of memories about the war, little fleeting snapshots so to speak.

I remember the railings on the wall of what I have always called the Crabtree Rec being cut down when I last looked the stubs were still there. The whole of that field was ploughed and sown with sugar beet.  My grandfather dug up by far the largest half of our front garden and sowed spring onions.  I recall seeing other vegetables in people's front gardens, things like lettuce and beetroot instead of flowers, the leaves were colourful anyway.

Another thing was the seemingly endless street collections of pennies to buy a Spitfire. Lining up pennies on the kerb, to get a mile of pennies was another way of collecting cash, can't imagine Lancing ever achieved a mile, but we tried......    Any old scrap metal was collected including old kettles and saucepans.  I remember the lorry collecting all the scrap metal loaded with old bikes and, well almost anything.

We lived on the only north/south main road through the village and closer to D day lots of tanks and other vehicles would pass our front door. We sat on the front wall writing down the numbers and nicknames of the tanks and other armoured cars, we watched as some of the drivers attempting to turn the corner by The Farmers misjudged it and the tracks chewed up the kerbstone.
 As I said, mini memories