COUNTRY SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

Southland Times, Issue 24113, 30 April 1940, Page 3

COUNTRY SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

COMMENTS OF LONDON CHILDREN Thousands of London children saw the country for the first time when they were evacuated at the beginning of the war. Their comments on country sights and sounds were frequently amazing and many have been collected by teachers and foster-parents. Here are a few A Cockney boy evacuated to a farm was returning home one evening with his farmer host when an owl hooted loudly. “What was that?” asked the boy. “That was an owl,” replied the farmer. “I know that,” said the boy, “but ’oo ’owled?”

Another boy, catching sight of some cows for the first time, exclaimed, “Gosh. What big handlebars those horses have.” Thatched houses, usually a source of delight to city children, were described as “houses with straw hats.” Rhubarb was referred to as “bloodshot celery.” One little girl, warned about the danger of eating toadstools, passed the warning on to her friends, like this: “A toadstool is a thing which looks like a mushroom, but if you eat it, it feels different to a mushroom.” Windmills, also, seen by many evacuees for the first time, gave rise to some quaint ideas. One boy thought windmills were used to “fan the wheat so that it did not get too hot in the sun.” Another asked if they were used “to h’ow the dirt off the fields.”