“‘Miss Is Good as a Mile,’ Writes English Woman on Being Rocked by Big Bomb” from the December 6, 1940 Door County Advocate
‘Miss Is Good as a Mile,’ Writes English Woman on Being Rocked by Big Bomb
In a marked contrast to the lament contained in a recent letter from a 20-year-old English girl who wanted to enjoy life and dance, comes another letter from the sister of George Steed Sr. of Sister Bay.
Parts of the letter are as follows:
“How about a copy of that Wisconsin paper (The Advocate) Ethel told me about with the letter I sent you printed on the front page?
“Do you know we are getting so used to the Blighters getting here nights and days that people are beginning to take no notice whatever of them. We have air raid shelters all along the roads, all about the place and to each few houses one for their own personal use. For instance, the number on my particular one is 353, and when I find it, I discover all my neighbors’ numbers are the same and that if ever we do use them, we shall all be known to each other which is very useful. But I went to have, a look in mine the other day and I don’t think it matters about going there are are present. They are cold and damp, being newly built, so I am staying right here where I am . . . all safe and sound unless I cop a direct hit and then there is not much to be done about it, and anyway I won’t know much about it.
“I was rocked in my bed a few days ago and the doors blown open from the blast, but that’s O. K. A miss is as good as a mile. Also a lump of shrapnel came through the roof one night whilst I was round there. Also plenty of bombs—a long fire close by—a home guard killed. But, as I said before, we get used to trifles, and we are still O. K.
“London is not so bad as you probably think, altho in places it really is a proper mess—especially in the East end; Oxford street, too—at the back of various places—the glass is the most dangerous as the blast can cause some pretty nasty cuts, to be sure.
Eggs are Scarce
“Marjorie got a week’s leave last week and went to Worthing. She brought me back a dozen eggs and some onion seed. The eggs were most acceptable as they have been very difficult to get here, and when we did get them, they were nearly as old as myself and looked as tho they had been down in a dugout for shelter. The onion seed, too, I was glad to get as all England seems to want to grow onions and that was difficult to get. Yesterday I put in 27 spring cabbage.
“Radio announced that motorists helping people obviously waiting for a bus by giving them a lift whenever possible can have extra rations of petrol. Boy, it’s great fun. Yesterday I stood on the kerb with my tin hat on. Along came a feller and gave me a lift home. Good. They usually carry a box and the folks who have the lift put the price of the fare they would have paid into it towards a Spitfire or Hurricane. Good idea what!
Collect for Spitfires
“We collect all the time to keep up the supply of the great little Spitfire fellers. One of our females got married the other day so I charged everybody a penny who called her by her previous name instead of her married name. You would have been surprised how quickly it grew, and Marjorie and I took it to a collecting place where a Junkers 88 was being exhibited to raise another Spitfire for us.
“We had the German which bombed Buckingham palace (ruddy sauce he had) on view at Richmond —not far from here, and charged six pence a time. They collected 9,400 pounds in a month, and then the Germans saw we are a beaten and starved nation. My answer and the answer of the whole of the English people to that one statement is RATS. We are still going strong and always will be.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
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