Anna and Joe Putts's daughter was born on September 3, 1939 - just as the air first sirens wailed throughout London. Eight months later Joe was in the army, and like so many other young wives and mothers Anna concentrated all her love and attention on her child. A traumatic experience on the one occasion when she did go out for her own pleasure has repercussions she could never have imagined. Along with the Putts family, Dason Street was populated by Queenie - who was to work in a factory - and Fred, Rosie, Jim, and Liza and Sid, who ran the newsagents. Sid, too old for the first call-up, became the street's air-raid warden and later he and Liza do their bit by taking children made homeless by the war. After a grueling six years, the Dason Street party, held on May, 12 1945 after Germany's surrender, was one of the largest anyone in the district had experienced.