Memories of Jack Ogden.
September 1939 – War declared on German – I was 11 years old. My childhood took on a new, and it seemed at that time, a period of great adventure.
Blackouts were imposed, gas masks were issued to everyone
and had to be carried everywhere. Along
with these came identity cards and ration books. The amount of basic food on these books was
very small and I soon found out how this small amount of food would be helped
out.
At Cassop school our head master
took on the role of leader, as well as that of teacher. Being a soldier in the 1914-18 war he was
soon involved in the L.D.V. later known as ‘THE HOME GUARD’. He was a great man for patriotic songs and at
assembly the school rang with ‘Hearts of Oak’, ‘
then used in the village. This was used as a gardening lesson and the ground was properly double dug and manured as we worked
I became a collector of all forms of scrap to be used in the war effort, a ticket seller for concerts, dances and a host of other activities used to raise money for the war effort. At times a weekly event would be organised to raise money to buy a certain part for a Spitfire or Hurricane fighter plane. This was raised by collections door to door, and at 1d, 3d and 6d (old pence) at time was a slow job.
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A Spitfire
With hours and days spent in the school garden, selling
tickets, delivering leaflets and cleaning home guard equipment I did not spend
much time in the classroom.
We had large gardens at home and as we had our own flock of hens and kept a pig for bacon our allowance of eggs and bacon in the ration books were taken out and we were allowed coupons to purchase a small amount of corn and meal each month to help feed the livestock. To help feed the livestock I also had to glean the cornfields after harvest time and to pick over the potato fields after ploughing for small and damaged tubers. I also helped on corn thrashing days at the farm – my wages taken in a sack of corn. I also picked potatoes at 1 shilling per day plus a pail full of produce to take home each night.
We did not have many air raids or warnings but they were
frightening and destructive and it made me fully aware of the suffering and
hardship that was the lot of our towns and industrial areas and ports. The newspapers and particularly the BBC radio
and cinema newsreels made us only too aware of the very severe conditions many
parts of the country had to deal with.
We were lucky in our semi-country area.
We had ‘highlights’ – a bomber, I think it was a
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