A. Charlton Mainstone
The aim of this book is threefold. Firstly it recounts the actual experiences, attitudes and opinions that form a treasure trove of personal history of those that lived through the years during World War II, both serving and life continuing back at home. ’Trouble appeared to accompany me. However aerial conflict did not always come from man-made aircraft.' It recalls the actual happenings, both severe and frequently humorous, of those in the military as well as those in reserved occupations on farms, working to keep the nation fed and tales of the post war housewife. Often war memories are written by those of a high rank but these are the true encounters of those in the lower ranks that carried out the foundation duties and survived to tell the tales. ’the lads in my unit were complaining about the large vulture that continually eyed them as they were following the call of nature. ’I thought, I can fix this.’ Secondly, it is to recognise and remind us that the elderly were once young and have detailed experiences indelibly etched on the walls of their long-term memories of living in a bygone era, which we today should not readily discard in our often all too quick dismissive manner, often with strains of irritability. ’The expressions on the faces of the men when I took off my goggles and helmet and let my long blonde hair cascade over my shoulders... You could hear a pin drop. ’Perhaps we should just pause and give them a little more of our ’precious’ time before those moments are irretrievably lost forever. ’My granny always believed in starting early. ’with a drop of ’naughty. ’My Granny always wore a flowery wrap pinafore for housework that criss-crossed the front of her body and tied in a bow at the back. For cooking she swopped it for a cook’s pinny apron with enormous pockets and wide ruffled shoulder straps.’ Thirdly, it acknowledges the mental trauma of relatives that have given their latter lives to care for their elderly relative that they love, and the pangs of guilt they experience when it has become necessary to arrange for their parent to live in a care home. However, in some cases, it must be observed, that for the ’golden oldie' this serves as a last opportunity to while away their days in the convivial company of their contemporaries, recalling, when they are able, those precious, early decades of their lifetime, an unexpected, ’surprising’ to them, preference to sitting alone listening to the grandfather clock tick tocking.
