Children of War

The strangeness of wartime childhood, as suggested last week by New York Times London Correspondent Tania Long: ". . . Youngsters between the ages of five and seven have forgotten . . . many of the attributes of peacetime living. . . . When questioned about . . . bananas [many] stared suspiciously at the teacher. . . . When one little boy was . . . asked what [street lights] were for, he merely shrugged his shoulders in a puzzled manner. . . . Nearly all of them thought that the barrage balloons over London had always been there. . . . One boy had recently seen a lemon in a hothouse in Kew Gardens and a little girl vaguely remembered having had a grapefruit many years ago. . . . Only one or two could remember [buying] candies without having to give up coupons."

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