Read Evacuee Boys for Free Online Page B
Authors: John E. Forbat
I should not miss the last opportunity of thanking you for your efforts in making John happy, and putting him up to the utmost of your ability.
No one appreciates it more than I do, that, if John had not been quite comfortable, for having to sleep with a lodger, it was because that was the only way you could manage to feed him and yourself from your mean billeting allowance. Apart from this, the fact that you had evacuees since the war started, at your age, & financial means, is very praiseworthy indeed, & it can safely be said, that you have done more than your share of the National Effort and have done it remarkable well indeed.
I have been extremely sorry to hear o[f] your scalded leg, and I sincerely hope, that you will soon be much better, and be restored to your former health and vigour. At the same time I do wish to apologise for the extra work & inconvenience that was put on you through John, and to than[k] you for managing so well, and really I am glad that you are now relieved of this extra worry.
Hoping that your foot will be better soon
I am, yours sincerely,
(signature)’
Do not think that this letter is exaggerating Mrs. Trimnell’s merits, & I am sure that she will be very proud when she receives it, to have gained so much of your satisfaction. About a fortnight after John is moved I should write another letter to Mrs. Robins thanking her for giving John shelter, & how happy he is there etc. People expect these thanking letters.
I shall leave room for John on the other side.
With love from Andrew
… continued by John on the back
Dear Mum and Dad,
We have very good news, I shall be moved on Saturday. I might go to the Vicarage and I might go to somewhere else. But I am sure I shall be moved.
I have not received my watch please send it.
Lots of love,
from John
The Wonders of a Semi-detached
This semi-detached on an estate of identical houses boasted a bathroom and toilet downstairs. A very knowing girl, their daughter Ruby was a year younger than me. Three years my junior was their son Michael, with whom I shared a bed. He would later press his face to the frosted glass bathroom window from outside and shout, ‘I can see your black brush,’ when I stood up in the bath.
Now aged 12, I was becoming ever less inadequate in the nether regions and ever more conscious of the subsequent stirrings – these led to matching a past neighbour Gerald’s prowess and also gained Michael’s admiration. The bathroom afforded the privacy to explore, experiment and finally to enjoy the exciting discoveries that followed. I had heard of a mysterious white fluid that passed into a woman’s tummy and often wondered how anybody could know its colour, as it passed directly from inside a man to inside a woman. Now I knew – almost.
Marigolds grew around the front garden, while the back garden was completely cultivated with vegetables. The government’s ‘Dig for Victory’ inducements meant that most people grew their own vegetables and our school provided kids with their own allotments; on mine I grew everything I could sell. A large marrow carried a mile or two would fetch a worthwhile couple of (old) pence.
The fields behind provided endless rambling opportunities among tall hay and wildflowers, backing onto fields close to Andrew’s billet whence I had been so summarily expelled. Before he returned to London on passing his ‘Matric’ exams, and while he was quarantined with the mumps, I was unable to bring him the weekly issues of The Hotspur , The Champion and The Adventure : ‘two-penny bloods’ we both assiduously read. Here, the semaphore signalling we practised at Scouts provided the way to keep him up to date, as we stood on opposite sides of a great meadow and I transmitted the latest adventures of Rockfist Rogan in his 600mph sabre-nosed rocket fighter, which cut the wings off German planes, and how Windy Jones was getting along with the snobs at his highfalutin boarding
No one appreciates it more than I do, that, if John had not been quite comfortable, for having to sleep with a lodger, it was because that was the only way you could manage to feed him and yourself from your mean billeting allowance. Apart from this, the fact that you had evacuees since the war started, at your age, & financial means, is very praiseworthy indeed, & it can safely be said, that you have done more than your share of the National Effort and have done it remarkable well indeed.
I have been extremely sorry to hear o[f] your scalded leg, and I sincerely hope, that you will soon be much better, and be restored to your former health and vigour. At the same time I do wish to apologise for the extra work & inconvenience that was put on you through John, and to than[k] you for managing so well, and really I am glad that you are now relieved of this extra worry.
Hoping that your foot will be better soon
I am, yours sincerely,
(signature)’
Do not think that this letter is exaggerating Mrs. Trimnell’s merits, & I am sure that she will be very proud when she receives it, to have gained so much of your satisfaction. About a fortnight after John is moved I should write another letter to Mrs. Robins thanking her for giving John shelter, & how happy he is there etc. People expect these thanking letters.
I shall leave room for John on the other side.
With love from Andrew
… continued by John on the back
Dear Mum and Dad,
We have very good news, I shall be moved on Saturday. I might go to the Vicarage and I might go to somewhere else. But I am sure I shall be moved.
I have not received my watch please send it.
Lots of love,
from John
The Wonders of a Semi-detached
This semi-detached on an estate of identical houses boasted a bathroom and toilet downstairs. A very knowing girl, their daughter Ruby was a year younger than me. Three years my junior was their son Michael, with whom I shared a bed. He would later press his face to the frosted glass bathroom window from outside and shout, ‘I can see your black brush,’ when I stood up in the bath.
Now aged 12, I was becoming ever less inadequate in the nether regions and ever more conscious of the subsequent stirrings – these led to matching a past neighbour Gerald’s prowess and also gained Michael’s admiration. The bathroom afforded the privacy to explore, experiment and finally to enjoy the exciting discoveries that followed. I had heard of a mysterious white fluid that passed into a woman’s tummy and often wondered how anybody could know its colour, as it passed directly from inside a man to inside a woman. Now I knew – almost.
Marigolds grew around the front garden, while the back garden was completely cultivated with vegetables. The government’s ‘Dig for Victory’ inducements meant that most people grew their own vegetables and our school provided kids with their own allotments; on mine I grew everything I could sell. A large marrow carried a mile or two would fetch a worthwhile couple of (old) pence.
The fields behind provided endless rambling opportunities among tall hay and wildflowers, backing onto fields close to Andrew’s billet whence I had been so summarily expelled. Before he returned to London on passing his ‘Matric’ exams, and while he was quarantined with the mumps, I was unable to bring him the weekly issues of The Hotspur , The Champion and The Adventure : ‘two-penny bloods’ we both assiduously read. Here, the semaphore signalling we practised at Scouts provided the way to keep him up to date, as we stood on opposite sides of a great meadow and I transmitted the latest adventures of Rockfist Rogan in his 600mph sabre-nosed rocket fighter, which cut the wings off German planes, and how Windy Jones was getting along with the snobs at his highfalutin boarding
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