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When I was five years old, in late 1939, we moved from Lancashire to Slough. My Dad’s weaving experience had landed him a job with a velvet manufacturer on the Trading Estate. Soon after arrival he took a training course, became a turner and worked at Zwickys for many years. He had come down before my Mum and me and had found a house to rent at 43 Shackleton Road. Our neighbours were the Halls and one of my earliest recollections is sharing their air raid shelter until our own was set up.
During the war I remember the smoke screen containers on our street, how we collected shrapnel after an air raid and how we hoped that the siren would go off before we left for school because then we stayed home. I attended Elliman Avenue school and recall a German airman parachuting into the allotments behind the school. On VE Day there were bonfires on the street and fathers who had been away for years started to appear. After the war German prisoners were brought in to resurface Elliman Avenue and were camped outside the school for a time.
Millers shop near the school was where we could buy a Mars bar and maybe a bottle of Tizer. My mum shopped at the Co-op on Stoke Road and when I was about 13 I worked delivering groceries for Pines also on Stoke Road.
Memories include the near routine Saturday practice of wandering up and down High Street with maybe a stop at the ABC Café on the Crown Corner, movies at the Granada, the Adelphi or the Palace. I also recall Saturday night dances at the Palais, swimming at Baylis Park and cricket and football at Salt Hill. I joined Thomas Gray Youth Club which met two nights each week at that school.
When I was 11 I was lucky enough to get into Slough Grammar School. I still believe that my education there was the best I could had gotten anywhere. Part-time I also attended Slough College of Further Education on William St. I worked as a laboratory assistant at High Duty Alloys on the Trading Estate; I liked the job there but found that I could make twice as much working at ICI Paints. I needed the money because by then I had decided to immigrate to Canada which I did in 1957.
I’ll always be grateful to Mike Fagg one of the organizers of the Youth Club. He also moved to Canada and was a real help when I arrived there. After living in Montreal, Boston, Houston, Chicago, New York, Washington, Connecticut, San Francisco and San Diego, Joan, my wife of 51 years, and I now live in Nevada. Las Vegas is a lot different than Slough in the 40’s and 50’s but I’ll bet Slough has also changed.
Derek Pomfret
April 27, 20011
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