Still Hiding Out in the Country

I don't have anything in my life that compares to the story the 85 year-old actor Michael Caine told Marc Myers in the WSJ about his early childhood growing up during the London Blitz by German bombers.

A 7 year-old Michael and another boy named Clarence were sent to live with another family on the outskirts of London when it became apparent the Germans were going to use London for bombing practice. Sending children away from the city was a common practice in that wartime era.

The story goes:

"At the start of the German bombing of London in 1940 I was sent to live with a family outside of the city. They seemed nice enough, but when they went away for the weekend, they locked me and another boy, Clarence, in a dark cupboard under the stairs with just enough food and water. I was 7.

"This went on for three successive weekends. When my mother arrived on the fourth weekend to pick me up, she found me covered in sores. She nearly was sent to prison for beating up the other woman."

Proof that we live on a Mobius strip is the current tale Michael tells that he still seeks out life in the country when he and his wife of 46 years, Shakira, leave their West London flat and head for their converted 200-year-old barn in Surrey. He realizes he's still shuttling back and forth from London and the country. But with no bombing.

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