Residents at a Wixams care home have spoken of their Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) memories as the nation marks the 80th anniversary. Elstow Manor Care Home resident Ruth Register, aged 94, remembered the VE Day celebrations well. She was living in the village of Carlton at the time. She said: “There was a street tea party. Everybody brought something to eat, we all shared something, and it was great fun.
“I remember that I was asked by the organiser ‘oh you’re young Ruth, you can do the running about, you can go and find out what people are bringing.’
“We didn’t want everyone bringing corned beef sandwiches! It was a fun day. Everyone was very thankful that this dreadful war was at last over.”
Fellow resident at the Bedford Road home Jean Harlow, aged 93, remembered having a day off school with a particularly poignant memory of seeing the lights shine at night – something not seen at all during the war.
She said: “The only thing I really remember is in the evening we were walking down the Bedford embankment with my parents and all the lights were on which of course they had been off during the war. Everyone was skipping and dancing along the embankment.
“We had a street party during the day with long tables down the middle of the street. I do remember having jam sandwiches which were always plum. We had cake, not a heavy fruit cake, because the fruit was hard to come by.
“We had a lot of American airmen in Bedford during the war, they were very good. They didn’t come to the street party, but they gave us lots of things, they gave children sweets. Candies they call them. So, we had some sweets that day.”
Resident Derek Frossell, aged 94, said: “On VE Day I was doing my weekend job, I was working temp as a farm labourer which I did every school holiday. I was working and I ended up taking the land army girls to the pub. That was my job on VE Day.”
Graham Edginton, aged 96, recalled a lot of heavy restrictions during and after the war. He said: “We had to manage the best we could.
“My mother worked in a carpet firm; Kidderminster was famous for carpets. My mother had to go to one of the carpet firms and come home with her fingers all alight with phosphorus where they were making all sorts of ammunition.”
Resident John Skevington, aged 89, reminisced: “I can remember being with the village children, we rode round the village on a flat truck, trolley sort of thing, pulled by horse. The food was rationed, so the food on the day was sparse, so we didn’t really enjoy the range of foods we enjoy today.”
The nation celebrates the 80th anniversary of VE Day this week marking the end of the Second World War.
