As a relatively new member, I've added to various threads & now spent some time going back to the beginning of this (Jan.2010). So, having read peterchall's "book", as I was also there, I'll add a few of my own recollections. Peter's memory is, to me, phenomenal & my excuse for not being that good is, "what a difference a year makes"- but that's pretty lame! As Peter says, "if it's not written down now, no one will know in the future what it was like". Born 1930, (in the Canadian Maternity Hosp., near G'ham park), I lived in Cornwallis Avenue until Jan.'47 when I joined the RAF as an Apprentice. In 1939, the day before war was declared, I was evacuated with the school (Barnsole Rd.) to Herne Bay (8, New St.). We shared our schooling with the locals, each having 1/2 days.The rest of the time we were looked after by teachers or "helpers" - mothers who had come with us. As somewhere that I knew from holidays, I had a great time there. I specifically remember on the Sunday am when war was declared, the siren, on the roof of the fire station just round the corner, went off & wasn't it LOUD!! At the end of the " phoney" war, we never saw an aircraft, the Germans were just across the Channel so our School was re-evacuated to Bargoed in S. Wales. My parents didn't want me that far away, so I went to live with an Aunt in Shepperton, Middx., coming back home in July 1942. tbc