LIGHTER SIDE OF WAR

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 254, 30 December 1940, Page 6

LIGHTER SIDE OF WAR

Times are grim, but so long a»s we can see the l funny side of things they don't seem so bad, Avrites a London journalist. This characteristic of the British public iss ometliing to be proud of, and it has been greatly in evidence in the 1 air raid alarms of the past two or three Aveeks. After one night alarm, I heard groups of neighoburs chuckling heartily as each one related the adventures and mishaps of the preceding hours—tales of lost slippers and lost nether garments'., of black eyes: and bumped heads and torn clothes. I eA'e'n heard one lady relate hoAV she snatched up several pounds of peas on tlie Avay doAA r n to the shelter, and persuaded her husband to shell them Avliile she herse'lf stole a brief nap! Useful for Neighbours. One young married couple, Avith an Anderson shelter elaborately sunk at the foot of the garden, arrived to find it already croAvded with neighbours, including a newlyborn baby and a big Airdale dog I Without so much as a "by your they bad clambered over the garden gate and had taken possession, and there was no room for the lawful oAvners! There AA r as no time to argue, and it was with very bad grace indeed that the couple raced back to tlio house to take Avliat cover they could. It is a fact that, within half an hour of opening their doors following a night alarm, one branch insurance office alone received nine requests for grants towards the purchase of new suectacles —the origipnals having been trodden upon <">r sat on in the scurry for shelter. It is a matter for conjecture Avhat Avas, the total number of glasses broken in the town that night.

Lots of people continue to wake on the lastn otes of the "all clear" signal and to seek shelter in the belief that it was a warning signal they heard. Some of these people, in fact, have remained cooped up in cramped quarters for hours, in need less concern. But one married couple

AA'ho Avoke ont lie "all clear" 1 signal were under no such apprehension. Just as a matter of precaution, however, they peered into the bedroom of clieir small son, - aged eight. Great was the consternation to lind the bed empty. Considerate Son. Doaviistairs they raced, to find the missing son calmly reading a comic paper in the refuge room. He had heard the AA 7 arning signal in the first place, but had decided not to Avake his parents until the necessity arose. As this Avas the' very decision the parents had privately agreed, to adopt with the boy, it must be confessed theA r felt rather foolish'

Quite a number of houseAvives beten quick to realise that an Anderson shelter, deeply sunk in the ground, makes an excellent cool chamber for storing butter, milk, and meat. There is nothing to be paid against the practice so long as it does not occupy the Adtal space, but it is just as Avell to Avarn the family in advance, Quite a stormy scene arose in one household Avife discovered that her husband had been sitting on the family's weekly ration of butter for over an hour. . As the husband Avas big and burly, the butter had long ceased, to e'xist. But the flannel trousers of the victim were completely beyond the poAvers of the local drv cleaners.