General Chat

I was looking online at pictures from London of people celebrating last night, and dressed in 1940s styles.

It reminded me that I do indeed have a memory of VE day ........ Mum and Dad took me into town so they could see what was happening and join in.

I can remember peering through some railings at a big "house" with big columns outside, lots of lights, fire works, noise, cheering, etc.

It took me years to work out where they had taken me ......... after all almost all iron railings were removed for the war effort.

I suddenly realised on our trip back in 2001 where we had been.

The old Oldham Town Hall has Greek-style columns, and across High Street was a raised walk, and there were iron railings separating the pavement from the drop down to the road. Those railings had apparently not been removed as they were a safety factor. I guess in fact that the High Street had been originally dug through the side of a small hill on top of which was the Parish Church

So .............. Mum and Dad took me down to stand looking through the railings to the Town Hall, which was the centre of the celebrations!

I remember it reasonably well - as I lived up a country road there was no street party, but my paternal grandmother's road combined with the adjoining road for a party and I went there

I vaguely recall VJ day too - we went to the top of our road - the mountain top where there was a big bonfire and lots of people getting inebriated :-D

Yes I remember,I was almost 10 and I lived in a northern suburb of Manchester.
Our house was in an avenue cul de sac with a round bit near the bottom.

Neighbours all got together and tables were put out,everyone providing food.
My mother was a lovely cook and made buns,scones etc ,jellies and blancmange and loads of sandwiches ...probably spam or egg with lettuce tomatoes etc.

The children enjoyed this in the afternoon....then a piano came out from a neighbours house and someone played it into the night and they were all dancing in the circular bit.as they also rigged up lights and the bottom bit...end of cul de sac was a bar...
All this was impromptu and such a success that it was repeated for VJ Day.

Was also repeated for Coronation day in 1953 that was also my eighteenth birthday.
Did rain a bit that day,so some of it was indoors,but VE Day was a lovely day and it sticks in my memory. :-D

we had a street party, with tables down the middle of the street, and all the neighbours contributing and I do have a photo of it ................ but I don't know whether it was for VE or VJ Day.

It looks as though it was warm and sunny in the photo ...... I can identify my grandmother, but I can't see either Mum or Dad on there.

and I don't remember any celebrations at night, even though I slept in the front bedroom. I was probably a very sound sleeper :-D

I was only 5 :-D

My memory as with others is of a street party with jelly and whatever else rationing could provide. I remember a very strange man coming to join us. No-one had a clue who he was, but the war was over, so who cared. Try blocking the street off these days and see what happens. A different world then. Every house had bunting stretched all the way down the street - all except one house. The owner was a nice man but a self confessed communist, but it was just accepted without the slightest bit of animosity.

Happy days

I don't have memories of my own - too young! But it was on that day that my Mam met my Dad at a dance, and it was love at first sight - at least for him!

Were on holiday at the Argyll Arms on Bellocanty (sp) so of course the village pub was the centre of the celebrations, all I remember!

I do not recall a street party but my Dad had managed to get petrol and we went out for the day and he ended up buying me a grey chinchilla rabbit. We called her Victoria - found out wrong sex so changed name to Vick.

Chris .............. :-D :-D

I like it!!

The other thing I noticed looking at the photos from last night on the internet was ..............


I could remember my Mum wearing those clothes and similar hairstyles ............ not hanging over her shoulder in curls, but curled up at the back somehow.

I lived in Islington, London............ I can remember, although I was less than four at the time, there was a huge party in the centre of the flats where I lived ....... there must have been hundreds of us there with all the grown-ups singing and dancing..... I had no idea then what it was all about ........ it wasn't for years after that I learnt there had been a war..

I knew that there had been a war ........

....... we spent several nights on the basement stairs, with my mum's parents coming across the street to join us.

And a bomb fell less than 1 km away from our house ............. I've since found out that it was December 24 1944, killed about 39 people and injured 40+

I can remember 2 things about that ............ one screaming my little head off in the dark as we sat on the stairs, and looking out the next morning to see the street outside covered with glass with my grandparents fox terrier picking her way across from their house.

Every house in the street had lost all the windows, except for our house. Dad was in restricted employment and had worked in London in the early days. His landlady down there gave him a good tip about unlatching the windows when the sirens went.

I also remember being absolutely disgusted when I got sick, and was told I had German measles :-D

Don't remember VE day as I was still in Birmingham as a London evacuee . I didn't come home till jan 1946 .was the last evacuated child of the family to come home
I was 8 years old (9 in the March)

Remember for many years after we always wore red white and blue striped ribbon in our hair for VE and VJ Day and at school on those days we would do maypole dancing in the playground in the afternoon .we had the morning off and only went for the afternoon celebrations

Remember there was a street party with trestle tables down the middle of the road and all the families brought out their dining chairs for the children to sit on.

Remember lots of jelly and sandwiches and cake and we all had party hats on and there was bunting everywhere . Later on the adults had their own street party with dancing in the street to wind up gramophone records and music from radios .Think this have been for the wedding of Elizabeth to Philip

I have a few,such as street parties and my Father coming home on leave prior to his demob. I just wonder if they will take as much trouble for VJ day when it arrives.For the Forgotten armies who fought in the jungles ,and the men who worked and died as slave labour on the railway in Burma, The Chindits and their like.I hope they rememberthem. **M**.

I was almost 6 and do vaguely remember the street party, which was in an adjacent street. I do have a photo to jog my memory. It was fancy dress for the children, I was a fairy with a wand. I also vaguely remember fireworks but not sure if that was the same day or maybe VJ day.

I remember the party on VJ Day as well.
The prisoners of war were treated very badly by the Japanese.
My uncle was never the same after coming back from that war.
He could never bear potato peelings and outer cabbage leaves being thrown awAy,or indeed any other waste as they had to eat a lot of food that should have gone in the compost.
Any one remember Tenko...on TV? Well it wasn't far wrong.I believe a lot were treated far worse than they were in German camps.

I wasnt around for VE day, but what a lovely thread iv enjoyed reading everyones memories

Thank you, Stray!

Reminds me of sitting on my grandads knee when i was very littke, listening to his stories of the war, quiet a homely feeling.

The prisoners in Japan were treated terribly ............... one of the men in the village where OH grew up had been imprisoned in Japan, and was a completely changed man after he got back.

We later became close friends with his son after we moved to Vancouver and OH and the son made contact. G was 4 or 5 years older than OH (one of the "big boys" in the village :-) ), so had some memories of his father before the war, and told us many stories.

One that I do remember was how his father got back to England from Japan after release.

The men were put on board a ship from Japan to Vancouver. They were off-loaded on to a train, the doors were locked and the blinds had to remain down, The train crossed Canada with the men cooped up like that. G didn't know whether the men had been taken to Montreal or Halifax for a ship to England .............. but they were not allowed to leave the train at any stop.

G also said his father was unrecognizable when he did get home ........ he was so thin and malnourished. It took him years to put on weight, but he was never quite the same.