I remember having to take the gas mask to school every day, and hang it on the back of my chair.
My best friends at that time were evacuees, but we weren’t especially aware of the war, even though my dad was working in a shipyard in Cowes.
We were always hungry, we used to eat the acorns from the trees in the playground. We didn’t eat very many because they took so long to peel. We were sent out to pick blackberries, and rosehips for vitamin c to supplement the food.  It must have been along the railway line, and there were still trains, but I don’t remember any warnings or worries. The boys didn’t do much picking, just opened up the rosehips and put the seeds down people’s necks as itching powder.
I remember getting occasional packets of chocolate powder which was supposed to be for making hot chocolate, but my mother used to let me sit on the doorstep and dip my finger in the powder, the nearest we got to sweets, although later we did have a 2oz ration from Mr. Burt’s shop.  Mr Burt’s shop 
Mary Lord b 1936