Tell your children about us by Arragon Hutten

Author:Arragon Hutten [Hutten, Arragon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Military, World War II, Biography & Memoir, Historical
ISBN: 9781777439606
Publisher: Mokeham Publishing Inc.
Published: 2020-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

I was warm in this outfit

Nelia Barnfield

I was only two at the beginning of the war. We were living in Enschede. The German bombers on their way to England flew over our house quite low. I would scream “Chine fly! Chine fly!” – machine fly – and come running into the house. For a long time after the war I could not look at pictures of planes.

I remember the horrible, sickly smell in our living room of sugar beets simmering in a large pan on our potbelly stove. We wrapped up a pot of hutspot (potatoes and carrots mashed together) in newspapers and blankets to cook the ingredients. I became anemic at age six, which became a problem for years to come.

One year I wore unlined rain boots and developed terrible chilblains. My heels were purple. I also had a pair of wooden shoes, which I wore out totally. One day I was late for school because snow had made a pointed ice ball under the soles, so that I could barely walk.

In 1941 we had moved to Leiden. Opposite our house was a wooden pedestrian bridge across the canal. During the previous winter some of the boards had been cut out during the night to be used for firewood making the bridge unusable.

During my year in second grade we missed much school. There was no fuel to heat the buildings. It was arranged with another school to heat only one building at a time, which meant classes for only half a day. Our teacher was fantastic because she had us all come to her house, about three children at a time, to recite our times tables.

My mother, who was an accomplished seamstress, made me a winter coat with a hood and matching pants. Out of desperation she used velvet drapes for the fabric, and for the lining, an old dressing gown. I was very warm in this outfit.

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