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I was born three months after the WW2 started and would have about 4 years old when this happened. I lived next door to a bakery which I think was called Blamche's in Belmont Road, Hereford where there was an American Army base nearby. As children my two brothers and I used to sit on a wall outside our home and sing a little ditty which went, "Got any gum chum", to which we were treated with sweets and chocolate, all of which were a scarcity at the time (1944-1947 rationing years. Also, at the time the army personnel consisted of both black and white soldiers and on account of some trouble between them they were segregated when visiting the bakery. One day a group of black soldiers came by and I had never encountered any black people ever before in my short life and I thought it was the 'bogey man' come to get me and ran into the house screaming. As this story was related to me some years later, the young black American soldier apologised profusely to my parents and explained that he had a 'bambino' back home of a similar age and I reminded him of her and he felt like he would like to give me a cuddle. This is a reminder of how life and people's attitudes have changed on issues such as racism and child rearing, since the war years.

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