Roy Phelps

Echoes of My Footsteps Roy Phelps

It was a chilly September night in 1940 when we first heard the air raid siren begin its wailing warning of another air raid by German bombers. The sound of aircraft engines was getting closer and louder. My mother wrapped me in a blanket and took me down to our garden air raid shelter. I could see the search lights sweeping the sky seeking the bombers whose intent was to destroy London. I could hear the guns on the English coast firing at the German bombers. So it was decided that I was to be evacuated out of London to a surrogate mother in the country for the duration of the war. I was evacuated to Thundersley, Essex for six years. After wars end I returned home to London. I attended school until graduation when I enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1955 and was assigned to an American/RAF air base. I was fascinated by the American life style and I knew that my destiny was to go to America when I was discharged. I made my travel plans and soon embarked to America on the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth and arrived in New York in 1958. Here began my adventures living in New York City and traveling in my old 1952 Chevy on the famous Route 66 to Los Angeles. My adventures continued as I was offered sales jobs that allowed me to travel across America. I was no longer an Englishman, but was now an American citizen.