THE ghost-like drone of the 'air raid' warning echoes over Swansea. I cwtch into my father's coat, one eye following the searchlight as it fans across the night sky.
Mam shines a torch into the shelter and down we go into its earthy eerie darkness. Dad lights the stumps of candles, then we cuddle together under a blanket -- waiting. "It's too quiet", Mam whispers, then we hear the familiar rumble in the distance. "Shush," Dad says -- we listen. "He's flying in low over the bay. It's starting." At his words I stiffen with fear.
Mr Green is nice, yes. Mr Green is lovely, and he keeps us safe. Every night he patrols the area, making sure there's not Replica Porsche Design Watches Asia a chink of light showing through the black-out curtains. We must not alert the enemy at all cost, he tells us.
Today Mr Green is in our kitchen. "The town is in utter devastation," he says gravely. "Ben Evans's store is still on fire, the market took a direct hit." He puts his empty teacup on the table. "Mayhill has also taken a battering. Eigen and Teilo Crescents -- many fatalities."
What was once the market is now a mountain of rubble, most of Oxford Street is flattened, except for Halfords, the bicycle shop. I can see the burnt-out skeletons of bicycles hanging from its walls. We are moved by a workman to a clearing where it is safe to walk. "If you want shops there's two in High Street, Liptons and the Home & Colonial," he says. As we weave our way I pull on Mam's coat.
"Have you brought the ration books," I ask. "Yes," she smiles, "fancy you thinking about them." Some rubble has been cleared and stacked to the sides of the road, like mountains. High Street Woolworths and the Castle Buildings stand on their own like monuments, except that all the arches of shops under the Castle Buildings are blasted to pieces.
Mam walks fast to the Home & Colonial store and I run by her side. "We must put a brave face on things," Mam tells me. "The war will soon be over." But the war wasn't soon over, and for years we lived in fear and uncertainty.
Then, toward the end of these dark times -- something magical happened -- they came. They came, and gave us a happy heart, and a new purpose to our lives.
They came quietly in the night and by morning a little bit of Hollywood was right here in our street. All of a sudden Townhill was full of men who talked and looked like people in the movies.
The American soldiers were billeted with families all over the Hill, and they made themselves at home straight away. One night we children watched a group of Yanks play dice under the lamppost by Panty steps. "Come on, Rick, you can do it," he tells himself, blowing into his hand. "You can do it Rick," we chant.
replica Chanel Handbags "Two sixes" we scream, and punch the air with delight. "Sonny, bring out the candy," he yells to his soldier pal, who sits legs dangling precariously over the edge of Mr Guard's bedroom window. Then, suddenly, sailing down on us like confetti at a wedding, were packets of chewing gum and bars of chocolate, the likes of which we children could only dream about.
The sun is shining, and the street is packed with children playing. "Any gum chum?" we chant at every passing Jeep. Just then Phoebe Jenkins walks by on the arm of her American boyfriend. We watch in admiration. Her blonde hair curls around her lovely face, the silk of her dress clinging. Lips and toes are painted a vivid red to match her wedge
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