"No underpants then, you had to sit in school until a repair could be done on them," a man explained.
"When we went to school [during the Blitz] you were not allowed to wear long trousers until you reached the age of 14, short trousers were the normal thing to wear, and when your backside became thread bare you would have the hole covered up with what we called 'our jimmy and his magic patch'."