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Doris Black’s Story

β€œThe police were laughing…they were being kissed…”

Doris was 13-years-old in 1945. She was living in north London and went down into the centre of capital with her mum and two work colleagues from Marks and Spencer.

"It was packed, it was absolutely packed. There was no nastiness, no shoving and everybody loved everybody else. You ought to see the Americans and the girls. They were having a lovely old time and they were all climbing up on to this big platform thing. Kissing and cuddling, Oh I hated the lot of them, if only I'd have been five years older. The police were there, the police were laughing, the police were being kissed.

"I was too young, I was with my mum and two other elderly ladies. I got fed up, I really did. I was in white socks, it must have been the start of puberty!"

Doris saw a vacancy notice in a photographer's shop on Oxford Street on the way home. She later applied and got the job. β€œ

So VE Day was a good day for me. Everybody was happy, everybody loved everybody. Course the day after I expect everybody went back to being who they were.”

Image: Doris with her colleagues; she is second from the right on the top row

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3 minutes

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