Read Online Pie 'n' Mash and Prefabs by Norman Jacobs - Free Book Online

but the act of shooting at them was nearly always the cause of an argument: ‘You’re dead!’, ‘No, I’m not, you missed!’, ‘No, I didn’t!’ and ‘Anyway, I shot you first!’ Sometimes this argument could actually lead to realblows with fists, though most times it was settled in a reasonably amicable manner, i.e. the bigger boy would get his own way. If you were shot, you were dead until one of your side released you by touching you and you came back to life.
    War, of course, was a similar game, only fought between the English and the Germans. Although we were all born after the Second World War, its legacy still played a big part in our lives. When I started at school, it had been over for only seven years and some rationing was still in force. All our parents had lived through the nightmare, with many of our fathers having seen active service somewhere and with their own exciting tales to tell. Indeed, many of us had older siblings who had been born during the War and, rightly or wrongly, there was still an intense feeling of animosity towards Germans generally. No one seemed to separate Germans from Nazis – as far as the generation that had come through the War was concerned, they were the same thing.
    This feeling of intense hatred towards the Germans led to a real crisis of conscience for Dad in 1957 as, during the summer holidays, John, who was studying French and German at A-level, took part in an exchange programme, which meant his staying with a German family for two weeks and, horror of horrors, a German student, Michael Thermann, staying with us. For John’s sake, Dad did his best not to let his discomfort show, but he barely said two words to Michael for the entire fortnight that he was with us. Michael did amuse us, though, because whenever we gave him an apple he used to eat the lot, stalk, core, pips, everything, and when he had fish he would eat the bones. He never left anything. We didn’t know whether thiswas normal German behaviour, whether he was being polite in not wanting to leave anything or whether he was just so afraid of my dad that he didn’t dare leave anything.
    This feeling of animosity rubbed off on us, of course, though I like to think that as my generation grew up we realised that Germans and Nazis were far from the same thing. But when we played those games, it was all very simple: the English were the ‘goodies’ and the Germans were the ‘baddies’. Absolutely nobody wanted to be a German, but someone had to be for everyone to play the game, so the same rules applied as finding Indians for the Cowboys and Indians games. As well as playing War outside, most boys would draw war pictures in the classroom, either in actual art lessons or when there was a bit of spare time. The most popular picture was of a British plane dropping bombs on a German battleship; it made for an exciting image. All of these feelings about the War and Germans were reinforced by much of the popular culture of the time since films, books, comics, songs and television all owed much to this legacy. There were numerous television programmes presented by generals like Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery and Lieutenant-General Sir Brian Horrocks, and classic films such as The Dam Busters and Reach for the Sky were staples of 1950s cinema.
    Another reminder of the war years was the fact that every now and then in the early fifties the army would hold exercises on Hackney Marshes, during which they would send up barrage balloons. As soon as word got round that this was happening, all the boys in the neighbourhood got there as fast as they could. To us, it was very exciting but to our parents I expect it was just another reminder of days they’d rather forget.
    Sometimes the act of two boys linking arms was an end in itself when it was done behind their backs as these would become ‘bash-ups’ and the boys themselves would run round into