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Alberta Sayer Conger, who took her maiden name as a middle name, was born in 1938, and lived at the following addresses, all in Norwich: Ber Street; 84 Beverly Road and 18 Maple Drive.
I was born in Wymondham but we moved to Norwich soon after. I grew up with four sisters, two older and two younger than me, and can remember air raids and the barrage balloons.
I could tell my Mother where each one was, and once we saw one go down in flames. The air raid sirens and air raids became a part of life and we stayed in our own beds unless the bombs came close to us, for the air raid shelter was not a particularly clean place.
During the war, we lived next door to a family named Hall, their daughter was named Dorothy and there were two others named Hetty and Ethel. On the other side of us was a family named Taylor: Pauline, and Trevor are two of the children's names I remember.
Their Mother always kept Syrup of Figs in a small cupboard and I remember the children so liked the taste that they used to take a swig once in a while and then fill up the bottle with water. They must have been very regular!
Their Father came home on leave once and brought a coconut with him, and we all waited impatiently while Mr. Taylor made the holes and let us all taste the milk, and then broke it open and cut us each a large piece. What a disappointment, I thought it tasted a bit like soap and said I'd save mine for later.
Our Dad used to send us oranges from Italy, they came wrapped in the most beautiful papers, each one a different print of a famous painting. It's a pity that we never saved them, they were so lovely.
My sister Marie and Dorothy Hall used to go with some of us and we'd scrump apples at a large orchard down near Trowse. The Army had some kind of offices in the big red brick house there, and we used to knock on the door to ask permission, but nobody ever answered, so we picked up windfalls anyway.
We spent many long hot days at Trowse, playing in the river and having fun. The war was something that was happening around us, but I know that I for one was too young to realise what it meant.
There were sometimes pieces of planes in the street, and always air raids, but the big boys used to make rings out of the plane window pieces, was it plexi glass? And the whole neighbourhood had a party when it was all over.
It left its mark on all of us in different ways. I've been to the Imperial War Museum in London and had a bad moment when the air raid siren went off in the mock up of a shelter, then I had to leave the place.
The display of a typical week's rations for a family that was shown was amazingly different to what we actually had, for it looked almost appetising. I never go to movies about war, any war, I'd sooner stay home.
We lived near Ber Street then and I can remember the first time I tasted ice-cream. It was made by a man named Mr Carrera and he was selling it from a little cart. I only had a penny and it cost tuppence, but he gave me a cone anyway.
I often saw elegant ladies from the Carrera family near Joe and Anna's fish and chip shop on Ber Street. I can remember them sitting outside the shop on fine days. They were very impressive, all dressed in black with their hair braided and worn twisted on top of their heads like elegant coronets.
Another member of the same family, Roy Carrera, sold ice-cream on Surrey Street.
Later on there was another Italian ice-cream man near Old Palace Road/ Heighham Street named Joe Peruzzi, from somewhere near Barne Road, who had lovely ice cream. When I went to Notre Dame High School I used to see Joe Peruzzi with his ice cream bicycle cart on Surrey Street nearly every day.
We used to go to the cattle market on Saturdays and let the calves suck our hands, watch the cattle being sold and hold our noses at the pigs. Maybe because we were small children those pigs seemed to be the largest, scariest things around.
We moved to Beverly Road when I was 10 yrs old and I passed the 11 plus and went to Notre Dame, and finally was old enough to get a job, so I worked in Buntings office for a while, eventually ending up at the Eagle Star on Bank Plain, and after that the Royal Insurance Co.
My friend Maureen Graham {nee Hayward} and I used to go dancing as often as we could, the Lido, Samson and Hercules, American Club and Sculthorpe. We had a great time, all very innocent, but we thought we were such devils, going to Sculthorpe and all.
My sister Marie had taken me to Tea Dances at the Samson when I was 16, and I remember the first time I danced with a guy it was to Guy Middleton singing 'She Wore Red Feathers and a Hula Hula Skirt'. Daft song.
My whole family emigrated to the U.S. in March 1960, but I've been back to Britain many times, and always try to see my friend Maureen and Gillian Hare {nee Aldridge} whenever I go. The last time I was there was in 1999, but I plan to visit again soon.
Alberta Sayer Conger, USA, 2002
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