This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.
An 'Ever Loving Wife' writes in John Bull:
Bert has only been demobbed three weeks, but it seems longer. When he came home he called me his ever loving wife, and said he was my ever loving husband. I think he read it in a book. He seems to spend more time with his ever loving pals Tom, Alf, and Ernie. They were three years abroad in the Army together and to hear them talk you wouldn't know there was a war on when they were in it. Life was all beer and skittles, but mostly beer.
When he first came home he said he was going to get up in the morning and bring me a cup of tea in bed. I found out his idea of early morning tea was about ten o'clock, so I took his tea to him, got the children off to school, and was in the fish queue by nine ...
He says he is very pleased to have a nice home to come back to, but he doesn't see much of it except the fireplace. In the cold weather he used all the coal ration in two days. He said he's used to an Army hut, where they have a stove and pour hundredweights into it day and night ...
Sometimes I think it's better when Bert's out with Tom and Alf and Ernie. At least everything happens outside. Last night I found him in the sitting room with a garden syringe and some paraffin showing the kids how a flamethrower works.
Anyway, in about three weeks he'll have to start work, and then, perhaps, not being used to it, he'll be too tired in the evening to do anything but sleep ...
Between coffee and the ongoing overtime-related fatigue, I read "Brett" for "Bert" first time through.
Fess up, Brett. Did you burn all the coal?
Posted by: Erik Lund | Wednesday, 17 February 2010 at 01:41 PM