When we arrived in Akron we went to stay with Mrs Wilkes who ran a boarding house. She was British and she had sailed across to America on the Titanic with her son and her sister. She was one of the lucky ones who had survived this disaster. My father had stayed with her whilst working in the city. There had also been other men from the Bont staying there at times.

The houses that we lived in in Akron were very different to the terraced streets of Pontarddulais. They were detached wooden houses with large porches on the front - where you could sit and enjoy the warm summers. Inside the rooms had wooden floors and they were filled with wooden furniture.

The first school my brothers and I attended was Grace School and this was a mixed school and very different to the all girls school in Pontarddulais. When we moved to the East side of the city we went to Perkins School and I then spent most of my time in Spicer School.

Life in Ohio was very different to life in South Wales. During the summer it was very warm and we enjoyed spending time in the lakes. I remember once being with my friend Sylvia (who'd also come across from GB) and there was a bad thunderstorm. We were running to take shelter and a bolt of lightening set a bush on fire right before our very eyes. During winter it snowed a lot and we enjoyed sleigh riding. They would even close some of the roads at the end of the school day so we could sledge down them.

It was easy to make friends - I had a Italian friend called Veta, a German friend and two American friends called Dorothy. There were lots of different nationalities in Akron. There was though a big difference between the black and white children - we didn't mix and we went to separate schools. We'd never seen black people before.

At school both boys and girls were taught together. We were taken out to visit local factories as part of our studies. I remember visiting a Heinz factory - and I was given a brooch shaped like a pickle. I can also recall sports day and after winning a race I was presented with a string of red beads. During his spare time Glyn my older brother acted as a caddy in the local golf club.

There was a lot more choice in the food available to us. I remember eating lettuce for the first time - I thought it was wonderful! I even liked to eat it with gravy! You could eat exotic fruit never seen in South Wales - water melon was a favourite of mine. I also recall drinking coke cola for the very first time.

At home because the house was quite large - my mother was able to take in lodgers. These included Ike from Hendy, Dave from Pontarddulais and Mr Curtis from England. My father was still working as a clerk in Goodridge's office. He would sometimes bring tyre samples home for my brothers and I to play with.

We kept in touch with my grandparents in Pontarddulais by letter. We didn't forget we were Welsh. On the first Independence Day that we were in Ohio, I dressed up in my Welsh costume as part of a pageant of the world - I was the only Welsh child there, every other nation was represented by two children.

At the age of 13, my parents separated and my mother decided to bring us home to Pontarddulais. Even though we had only been in America for three and a half years we had fitted a lot in! We travelled back to New York by train and we caught a ship called the Carmania to Liverpool. Here we were met by my grandfather and he took us back to Pontarddulais. Life was very different to what we'd experienced in America, we'd now finished our schooling and my brothers and I were young adults.

The End

Click here to read 'Eva's Story' - Part One.