On Thursday 8 May Waldron Market took place with suitable acknowledgements of the anniversary and singing of WW2 songs. In London there was a special service of remembrance with many survivors of the conflict in the congregation and at 6.30 pm a ringing of church bells across the whole country - in which of course Waldron's bellringers took part. The Union Flag flew proudly from church towers throughout Britain and the BBC broadcast many reminiscences of what it was like when the war ended and peace was declared : the street parties, the dancing and the quiet mourning in families who had lost one or more of their members and celebrations were the last thing they wished for.
We were reminded that deprivation continued until many years after the was was over, with bread and even meat still being rationed until the Queen's Coronation in 1953. The blackout curtains came down and lights came on again, but it wasn't until August 1945 and after the dropping of the Atomic Bomb that VJ Day was celebrated for Victory in Japan and gradually all the men and women who had gone to war were released from the armed forces and returned home, some bearing mental and physical scars which never fully healed.
I was a war baby, born in 1940 and an evacuee, so you might think I'd have some memories of VE Day, but it's a total blank. The reason is that I was in isolation hospital suffering from tuberculosis in my neck glands. Like many other children at this time I had drunk milk from TB-infected cows and developed TB, at that time a killer if it affected the lungs. Although penicillin had been developed by Sir Alexander Fleming and had been discovered to be highly affective against TB, it wasn't available to all and sundry and the NHS had not yet come into being. I spent 18 months in isolation hospital, visited only for half an hour a week by my mother until I had an operation to remove the swollen glands and was allowed home, having missed starting school, being chronically shy and unable to play with other children. So no celebrations for me!
Back to VE Day 80 in Waldron: on Sunday 11 May at 11.00 am, instead of the normal morning service there will be special prayers to commemorate VE Day 80 at the War Memorial in Waldron Village, to remember those men from our parish who went to war and did not survive. Fr Simon will preside and preach.
Following that where will be a barbecue in the Star garden to which everyone is welcome.
The next pub quiz will be on Wednesday 14 May and will be in aid of the Waldron Cricket Club. These quizzes are always popular and the most recent update I heard was that there were only two tables still unbooked, so waste no time! Teams of no more than six people and kick-off is 7.00 pm for a 7.30 pm quiz start.