I was very nearly a casualty of war

@Jackalyn (7559)
Oxford, England
November 10, 2017 7:25am CST
Tomorrow it is Remembrance Sunday. I'm too young to have been in the war and was born the year rationing stopped in the UK (1955), but I was very nearly still a casualty. My parents still live in the same house, but it used to have a glass lean to. My Mother would put my pram in there and leave me to sleep. Other houses in the road had been bombed, but ours was standing. However, all the houses near ours and ours included did suffer some structural damage. The landlord employed someone who did not do the job properly and the lean to was left despite being unsafe. One day it fell in with me in the lean to and in my pram. The glass didn't cut me at all. Thankfully I am here to tell the tale and I was not hurt. I do wonder if there were not other similar tales about children from my generation. We could still see war damage when I was a child. It isn't that uncommon for an unexploded bomb to be uncovered even now and more than one person has unknowingly had a live hand grenade as an ornament. My Grandad however, as a young man was gassed not once, but twice in the trenches in the first world war. He could tell of real horrors but never did.
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3 responses
@Hannihar (130238)
• Israel
10 Nov 17
I am glad you are ok from what happened. I live in Israel and we know about wars here. When our guys and gals turn Army age they have to go to the Army. There were many wars before I came and there were wars since I have lived here. I can see why your grandfather did not talk about the horrors. That is what happened to Holocaust survivors that did not speak of their horrors for quite a number of years. I am sure they felt we would not understand. I had a friend when I was growing up and her parents were in the Holocaust. Their friends were all survivors because I am sure others would not understand what they went through in the camps or before they were rounded up and sent to the camps.
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@Jackalyn (7559)
• Oxford, England
10 Nov 17
I travelled pretty extensively in the Middle East, but only saw Israel from Mount Nebo and Aqaba in Jordan. I felt very sorry for young people from any country, and in Iraq sat with a young man who was literally shaking at the thought of war. He was a gentle soul and very low in status so he knew he would be cannon fodder. It made me say I would never let my son go to war.
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@Hannihar (130238)
• Israel
10 Nov 17
@Jackalyn Happy Laddy and Freya, there are those that do not go to the Army here too. Arab countries have not treated their people very nice. Next time you should come back and see Israel.
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@Jackalyn (7559)
• Oxford, England
10 Nov 17
@Hannihar I wanted to at the time, but it would have been a problem getting back into Arab countries and the West Bank was closed. One day I will see Israel. It has always been one of my travel aims.
@Fleura (29268)
• United Kingdom
10 Nov 17
That was a lucky escape! I'm sure there must have been a lot of buildings that suffered structural damage that maybe didn't come to light until later.
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• Guangzhou, China
10 Nov 17
God is always by your side
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