Teddy 'N' Me
The Blitz And Other Childhood War Memories
by Peggy Halstead

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Peggy (Collins) Halstead was an infant at the beginning of WW II and living in London which was subjected to an enemy bombardment that killed friends and neighbours, destroyed blocks of homes, some next door to her own home – and terrified people, children in particular. In this brief account of her memory of those days she succeeds in making her experiences immediate and powerful and illuminates again that period in history: the terror, the courage, the suffering from cold, hunger and loss, and also, the after affects of such an experience on an innocent child. Sharon Butala

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Peggy Halstead was born Peggy Grace Collins in London, England on a mid August Thursday in 1938 less than 13 months before Britain declared war against Germany. She was a child of the war. Air raid sirens, Ack-Ack guns being fired, barrage balloons flying overhead, search lights probing the night sky, bombs being dropped nearby, twice being evacuated and her father being in service and away from home. These were her childhood realities. She spent countless hours, in the air raid shelter in her Nan Collins’s garden or having her afternoon naps in an indoor one. In “TEDDY ‘N’ ME, The Blitz and other Childhood War Memories” she shares her childhood memories. After the war, she, like thousands of other children of the war tried to get on with life as best as they could. She completed secondary school, worked for the Bank of England and then British Overseas Airways Corporation known, in jest, amongst the staff as (Better On A Camel). In 1963 she immigrated to Canada for a one year work term and 51 years later she is still there, married to David, mother of Neal and Sara, Nana to Nathaniel, Melissa, Anja, Isaac and Eden. She has 16 years experience as an elected public school trustee in two cities. Her writings have included material for: Regional and National CBC Radio, Regina Leader Post, RCMP Quarterly, Peter Gzowski’s “About This Country in the Morning”, a number of other Canadian and United States publications and, most recently, Stuart McLean’s book “Time Now For The Vinyl Cafe Story Exchange”. In addition she has three film scripts to her credit. Her travels have taken her to four of the five continents and she has lived in England, Canada and Ghana, West Africa. It was during the past decade as she worked alongside David, as he probed the research on brain development including the role emotions play in childhood development, that she realized she had valuable stories to tell. Central to her stories are the war emotions of: terror, near constant fear, anger and uncertainty. She now understands the impact these emotions had on her very early childhood and how they still affect her even today.

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