[DanaC]

This one absolutely breaks my heart in two. Vera Lynn singing Goodnight Children: a feel better moral boost for all the little younglings evacuated from the city to strangers' homes in the countryside during ww2




[note: the musical intro lasts for a minute and a half: don;t be fooled into thinking it's just an instrumental :P

I hear this and I can see in my mind's eye the little-un's with their parcel name tags round their necks. Waiting in church halls and on cold railway stations for whoever it was that would take them 'for the duration'. Policy advised against any contact with the natal family during this time as it was thought it would prove too upsetting. The families who took them weren't asked, they were told. Many of these kids had a sad and lonely time. Many were used as defacto servants and workers. Many were hungry, as the countryside folk had even less food than the Londoners. Many siblings were separated. Three and four year olds going off into the unknown with nothing but a teddy and a small case of clothes. I feel especially sorry for the ones who were selected last. The ones who kept being passed up as each set of adults came by to choose their new addition. Someone had to be last. Someone was always left waiting. Confused and wary.