A Family in Wartime: Evacuation

Summary

The transcript recounts the emotional experience of a child evacuated during World War II. The narrative highlights the chaos and fear involved in being taken away from family, as the speaker was transported from London to Wokingham on a double-decker bus along with their entire school. Upon arrival, children were gathered in a community center where foster arrangements were made. The speaker vividly describes their anxiety, feeling unwanted as others were chosen before them, until they were eventually placed with a family who already had their own children. This relocation was seen as a duty rather than a choice for the host family.

Highlights

• Witnessing masses of red double-decker buses outside the school. 🚌
• Feeling terribly unhappy and confused during the journey away from family. 😢
• Arriving at a community center filled with children and chaos. 🏢
• Being among the last two children to be picked by foster families. 👦
• Feeling like an unwanted 'ugly duckling' before finally being placed. 🦆

Key Takeaways

• Evacuation during wartime was a daunting experience, especially for young children, causing anxiety and confusion. 😦
• The use of double-decker buses to transport entire schools was a large-scale effort to ensure children's safety. 🚌
• Foster arrangements were hastily organized, leading to feelings of being unwanted for those left waiting. 🕰️
• The host families considered taking in children as a duty amidst the wartime situation. 🏠
• The narrative reflects the emotional turmoil and lack of understanding faced by evacuated children. 🤔

Overview

The narrative begins with vivid memories of the day before World War II broke out, setting the tone for a life-changing event as the speaker—along with their entire school—was evacuated from London. The mode of transportation was a sight to behold, as iconic red double-decker buses lined up to cart away the children and teachers in what felt like an unprecedented exodus.

The speaker shares their emotional turmoil during the evacuation process. Each mile away from familiar surroundings proved more daunting, especially when faced with a sea of unknown faces. Upon reaching their destination in Wokingham, the chaos of hundreds of children filling the community center only heightened feelings of anxiety. Each child sat silently, sipping milk and waiting to be selected by foster families, transforming the room into an emotionally charged scene.

Finally, the portrayal of being one of the last children to be chosen explains the heart-wrenching feeling of undesirability, only alleviated when a foster parent accepted the responsibility. Despite being integrated into a new home, the speaker notes a distinct separation felt by "children up from London," emphasizing the sense of duty felt by the hosting family rather than a genuine welcome. This account highlights the real emotional challenges faced by evacuated children during the wartime effort.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Evacuation Begins The chapter 'Evacuation Begins' recounts the experience of a person being evacuated as war was about to start, specifically on a Thursday before the war broke out on Sunday. The evacuation involved using big red double-decker buses that took the entire school, including teachers and pupils, to Woking. The narrator recalls that they felt very unhappy during the journey.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Separation and Uncertainty The narrator reflects on their first experience of being away from family, describing it as a tragic and confusing event. The separation was made more difficult by being surrounded by many children, most of whom were unfamiliar. The narrator recounts being transported by bus, feeling the distance from home was monumental at a young age. The experience is marked by a sense of bewilderment and dislocation as they arrive at a new, unknown place.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Arrival in Wokingham In the chapter titled 'Arrival in Wokingham', the scene is set at a Community Center in Wokingham where a large number of children are gathered, all sitting and enjoying drinks like milk and squash. The atmospheric chaos is highlighted by the small size of the hall compared to the seemingly vast number of children present, illustrating the perspective of a child's memory where everything appears larger than life. As the event progresses, parents begin to enter the hall and the children are distributed, though specific details on the allocation process remain unclear from the context provided.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Assignment to Foster Parents The narrator shares a personal experience in a hall where boys are being chosen to live with foster parents. As the hall empties, the narrator grows anxious and terrified, unsure of his own fate and whether he will also be chosen or remain there indefinitely. His story reflects the uncertainty and fear associated with the process of being placed with foster families.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Feeling Unwanted The narrator recalls a time when they felt unwanted, as they were one of the last children left to be chosen, which made them feel like an 'ugly duckling.' Eventually, a lady agreed to take the narrator in after being persuaded by officials known at the time as 'bitting officers.' The narrator was placed in a house in Wokingham with a lady known as Mrs. Hits, who already had two other children.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Settling in with Mrs. Hits The narrator reflects on their experience being taken in by a family after moving from London. Despite living with them, the narrator and presumably other children feel out of place and perceive themselves as merely a responsibility or duty to their caregivers, lacking a true sense of family belonging.

A Family in Wartime: Evacuation Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I remember that it must have been about the Thursday before war broke out I think if I recall war broke out on the Sunday I was evacuated big double-decker buses the red double decker buses masses of them outside the school taking the whole school Lock Stock and Barrel teachers pupils everything and we all went down to woking them I don't remember very much about the journey other than the fact that I was terribly unhappy the fact that was really my
• 00:30 - 01:00 first time away from any of my family and it was an absolute tragedy that I was being taken away I just couldn't understand it why have I got to leave my family with all these children some of them were my friends most of them I didn't know anyway because it was quite a big school there we were all herded away in these buses miles away from home and woking them what about 40 mil from London but it was the other end of the Earth at that age and I remember getting off the bus and going into a I suppose it was what You' called to their
• 01:00 - 01:30 Community Center in workingham and there were all of these children sitting down who given glasses of milk drink and squash it seemed quite pandemonium because it was a fairly smallish Hall and there were all of these hundreds and hundreds of children there couldn't have been but everything is so much bigger when you're younger seems so much bigger and then parents started to come into the hall and we were allocated to or most most of us were allocated to
• 01:30 - 02:00 somebody that was going to be a foster parent and people were coming and taking boys from this Hall and they were disappearing and I didn't know where they went to whe they were ever seen again or not but I remember getting a bit anxious because the hall was gradually getting more and more empty and there was me still sitting there with my little name tag on my lapel of my coat and my St John Boer hat on feeling terrified not knowing what
• 02:00 - 02:30 the dickings was going to happen and I remember that there was just two of us left so I must have been a right ugly duckling nobody wanted to know me and eventually one lady agreed to take one extra after being pressed by one of the I don't know what they called them then bitting officers I suppose and I eventually found myself in a house in wokingham with I think it was a Mrs hits something like that who already had two
• 02:30 - 03:00 children of our own we weren't equal in the family we were very much children up from London and it was just a duty that these people accepted us