Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 2:27 pm Post subject: The Shopping Trip.
This happened about three years ago during the school summer holidays.
I asked my 12 year old granddaughter as she was then if she would like a ride into Nottingham to go shopping and she jumped at the chance and asked me if she could take a friend.
I didnt mind this because I knew I could sit on a seat in the Broadmarsh Centre and let the girls go looking in the shops together.
If anyone has been to the Broadmarsh you will know that it is all covered in so if it rained it was still a nice place to shop.
We arrived and went for an allday breakfast and then went on our tour of the shops. We went up the escalator to the top storey to have a look at the other shops.
Upstairs also houses the entrance to Robin Hoods Caves.
Both girls wanted to go down and see the caves but I opted out to go for a coffee while they were down there.
I was just about to order my coffee when they came running back saying that they could not be admitted without an adult.
I wasnt too happy abou this because I was not over thrilled at going underground because I had spent enough time in my life imitating a ruddy mole during the London blitz.
I also did not want to disappoint the girls so I pushed my fears at the back of my mind to accompany them down the caves.
Many tourists were waiting to go in and during their conversation I realised that we had Americans, Canadians and Austrailians among us as well as English.
There must have been about 20 in the party as we made our way down to see where the supposedly Robin Hood hung out in days of old.
The person taking us round would be about 40 years old and was telling us that this was where Robin Hood had all the hides cleaned from the animals to make the clothes for his Merry men.
The courier asked of his audience whether they knew what a man was called who cleaned the skins of the animals.
Silence reigned.
Then my grandddaughter said I bet my grandma knows.
He looked at me expectantly and I could not let my granddaughter down so I said Yes he is called a tanner BUT there was another tanner too. This was the name of the old sixpence that we had when we had pounds, shillings and pence for our currency
He was quite intrigued by this and said that he had never head of it but he would remember to tell any more folk he took down.
We carried on and went further down the caves taking in this mythological place that Robin Hood was supposed to have lived in.
The tourists were intrigued and it was a pleasure to look at their faces to see the wonderment on them.
As we got further along I stopped dead because I could here the WW2 air raid siren sounding.
I must admit it took me by surprise and as we came from the caves although still underground we came into a mock up of an Anderson air raid shelter.
My granddaughter said Does it bring back bad memories Grandma? Before I could answer the courier heard what she said and said Has your Grandma been in one of these then before. Granddaughter answered and said Yes she was an evacuee from the London Blitz
He promptly said to me Its the very first time I have had an evacuee from the blitz so would you tell visitors what it was like because I too would be most interested.
Everyone started asking me then to tell them some stories about my experiences especially the tourists.
I did start telling them what it was like and reliving the horrors of that time and I must have been talking to them for a good ten minutes.
During the time I was talking it was SO quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
Even the chidren were as quiet as mice.
After I had finished I felt a right twit when they started clapping and shaking my hand.
When we finally got back to the entrance the tourists once again thanked me and shook my hand saying that it would be the highlight of their holiday because they had spoken to and heard some stories of WW2 from a real live evacuee.
I felt like a relic that had been dug up.
When we got home my granddaughter could not wait to tell her Granddad all about it and her parents.
Best bit was when the courier asked me if I could go again. _________________ If you cant say something nice then dont say anything at all.
The least they could have done, was offer you a part time job sitting in the Anderson shelter and giving short talks on the blitz to tourists I bet it would have really perked up the Robin Hood tours
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I bet it would have really perked up the Robin Hood tours 
