I was three when the war began and some of the things that I remember were being bombed out, we lived in Dynefor Place at the time. We walked up to my grandparents' house in Town Hill. When we got to the top, near St. Teilo's Crescent, we looked back and the whole of Swansea and even the bay was on fire. That's how it looked to my eyes, anyway. I think this must have been during one of the three nights of the blitz that everyone talked about.

I remember holding my doll, Stella, under my arm, while a plane came down very low over my mother and myself and others who were walking up the hill that night. My mother said the pilot looked down on us, she said he must have been out of ammunition or else he would have killed us. St. Teilo's Crescent was gone, it had a direct hit, but I wanted this lovely eiderdown and my mother pulled me away, she told me later on that it had covered a dead body, something I didn't realise at the time being so young, to me it was just a pretty thing.

My mother worked in the ammunition factory making aeroplane parts in Waunarlwydd during this time. She went out very early in the mornings. What little time she had, she spent making rag mats. I would cut up all the bits of material into strips for her to make these rag mats. They looked very pretty and kept us warm underfoot. She also made pots of flowers from old baby milk tins and toasting forks and copper wire. She went to sewing classes called, I think, 'Make Do And Mend'.

During this time we both lived with her parents, my father was in the army. My grandfather was in the ARP. When the air raids came my gran and myself always went under the table in the front room to hide. Although we had an anderson shelter, my gran hated it and only once did I ever remember going in it. It was full of spiders, etc. and smelt so awful I'd just came out fast and never went back in again.

I remember sweets being on ration, so when we didn't have any sweet coupons left to buy sweets, we ate things like liquorice roots and some kind of bean, like a kidney bean, but I can't remember what it was called. We also put it in twists of paper and we sucked it and it fizzed just like sherbet.

Once or twice I remember my mother going to a dance. She looked very pretty to me. She was only 25 when the war started and wanted a little bit of fun. My gran invited soldiers for meals sometimes, they were soldiers who had been injured in the war and had been treated up at Morriston Hospital as it is now. They came, I think, in blue suits with red ties and white shirts. I think this is how I remember them. Perhaps they were from a particular country. I remember when the Americans came and how my mother had nylons and chocolate, very exciting.

I was never hungry during the war. My gran made sure we were all fed, my grandfather grew lots of veg. and we ate lots of stews. We had pigeons and we also ate the eggs which were very tiny. The first time I saw a banana, I though you had to eat it with the skin on. I remember the utility stamp on some furniture my mother had. She had a bedroom suite for years after with the stamp on it. And we all listened to the radio a lot, all the favourite comedies, to make us laugh.