WOMEN’S WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 April 1943, Page 4

WOMEN’S WAR

"LISTEN TO WAR BABIES!” LANGUAGE OF THEIR. OWN. “Do you know I had a shock the other day,” stated Rose Buckner in a 8.8. C. talk. “My war babies, Hugh and Susie, were having a violent quarrel and above the din I heard Hugh shout in great anger, ‘l'm not speaking to you, Susie Buckner, I’ve blacked out my love for you!. “Amazing! isn’t it, mothers, our war babies growing up with a language of their own. They take war life and war terms as a regular part of their living. “Breathelessly Hugh tugged at my skirts the other day as he shotued, ‘Come quick, Mums, quick, Susie has taken the key from the “Invason” cupboard. He was referring to the cupboard where I keep a twb week’s supply in case of invasion or return of the blitz. “The other day I was rearranging the bedrooms and going back and forward with pillows and blankets. Doreen my little girl whispered to Hugh, ‘Looks as if we are in for another blitz, what do you think Hugh?’ “ ‘Bombed’ has taken the place of ‘broken' in their vocabulary, a thing is not ‘shared’ with them, it is ‘rationed-, the ‘balloons’ are ‘sky-fish’. ‘Blitz it! the game's over’ Doreen will say when they tire of the game. Any kind of hole in the road is a ‘crater’ never a hole. “When playing at houses their talk is about ‘clothes rationing', ‘food-ra-tioning,’ and salvage saving—it is funny to listen to them for they are repeating conversations overhead »in the home. “Their play homes always have a shelter, then, after the home is arranged someone is a plane, and the home is bombed. The toy dog may be forgotten just as the home is about to be bombed, ‘Whisper out and get the dog’ Hugh will say in a low voice. “Of course, the shelter is always intact, and they crawl out to survey the damaged home. They have a strange belief in the safety of a shelter. I find this is good, for the feeling of safety in the shelter is an obvous relief to them. “And do you know, after we had experienced a bad raid I discovered wee Hugh next morning, putting an empty cocoa tin into the pond. ‘What are you doing, son? I asked him. ‘l'm giving the gold fish a shelter, Mummy.’ “And I am truly amazed at the adoption of war ideas into their picture of home life. Hugh puts weeds and branches over the toy coal houses and the dustbin outside their make believe homes. ‘What’s that for, Hugh?’ I asked ■ —he was quite distressed that I should ask such a question. ‘You can’t see anything, Mums, that’s camouflage.’ I was struck with the fact that he should be clever enough to think of camouflaging the unsightly parts of a home. • “When planes go overhead they listen for a moment then, ‘Ours’ comes from Hugh and the game goes on. “ ‘Don’t worry, Hugh, even if they were Jerries they wouldn’t bomb us, they always go further up the street’, says matter of fact Doreen. “And it was touching to watch Hugh listen to Aunt Nellie telling us her experences when she had to be dug out of her ‘Anderson’ after one raid. He spoke up quickly, ‘Next time you are bombed out Auntie, just come and live with us.’ “Where I live in a London suburb planes come and go all day long over our homes. “Hugh pointed his toy gun up at the planes the other day. Doreen ran to him in great dstress, and in a trembling voice, and pulling at his arm, she said, ‘Don't shoot, Hugh, oh, don’t shoot, they’re ours.’ ” '