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Lyhapter I wo "Of course, there was nobody in London. " All through the late 1930s, the possibility of war was in everyone's mind. Like most families, the Kendalls listened to their radio and read their newspaper ; and like many families, they were so busy with their own lives that they tried to push thoughts of war to the back of their thoughts. The theatrical family paid less attention to politics than most: King George VI s coronation just before Kay's tenth birthday and the Wallis Simpson crisis beforehand pretty much passed them by (though Kim remembers her mother wondering what the Prince of Wales saw in "that woman"). But by 1939, it became harder to deny that war was on the horizon: Germany took Czechoslovakia in March, and through the summer rumors flew that Poland would be next. Kim recalls the family huddled around the radio, like so many others, listening to Churchill's stirring and alarming wartime speeches. In July 1939, Kay participated in a Lydia Kyasht "Evening of Ballet," along with her friends Shirley Ann Hall and Molly Simpson. Kay only had two featured numbers: as Dick Whittington in tights and high boots, and dancing "L'Elve." She was frustrated that she didn't get to be a flower fairy or a princess like her friends. Kay and Kim spent the rest of the summer of 1939 with the Drewerys in Withernsea. On August 31, as Germany prepared to invade Poland, the British fleet mobilized and panicked parents began sending their children away from London into the country—into other countries, if they could manage to. Molly Simpson and Shirley Ann Hall were staying with Shirley's parents in Scotland, about twenty miles from Oban. Terry and Gladys agreed that it would be much safer to send the girls there; school could wait until the war situation worked itself out one way or the other. The girls' temporary home was certainly no hardship: Trivnie Ardunie, the Halls' home, was a large rambling cottage on a mountainside leading down to the bay. Starvation wouldn't be a problem: the sisters caught plenty Lyhaptep I wo 15 of salmon and lobsters, and Mr. Hall was able to bring home birds and rabbits to supplement the seafood. Gladys stayed in the Elgin Avenue boardinghouse with Terry Junior; the two also visited friends' abandoned London homes to discourage burglars . Soon, Terry Junior joined the Merchant Service, and Gladys, on her own, returned to Withernsea for a visit with her family. By the time the school year had started, it was evident that Kim and Kay would be in Scotland for some time—so they, along with Molly and Shirley, were sent offkicking and screaming to St. Margaret s convent school some two miles away for day lessons. "We will, I think, draw a veil over it," says Simpson with a shudder. Kay—with little religious background and a naturally rebellious sense of humor—barely survived. She was always so happy the day was over that she skipped, singing, the two miles back home while her three classmates trudged wearily behind—Simpson recalls once whacking Kay on the back of the head with her school bag and getting a "damn good hiding" from older sister Kim. The sisters were very close as young girls, and Kim was protective of her dotty young charge. The four girls generally got along well, and they each had their own bedroom in the Halls' spacious home when they wanted to escape one another. Kay "kept us all sane," says Shirley Ann Hall. "She got away with everything." The four bartered their rations with each other: butter for margarine, sardines for beans, and sweets for favors. Kay was mad for sweets and never put on an ounce—Hall preferred sardines, so some satisfactory trading was accomplished. Kay had already developed an interest in perfume and makeup, but there was little to be had of that in 1939 Scotland. There was, however, a fairy-tale castle on the nearby bay, and the companionship of Annie the cook and Charlie the boatman, whose impenetrable Scots accents fascinated Kay and Kim. Along with many other London evacuees in Scotland was Anna Duse, a dress and set designer who was also one of the girls' teachers from the Kyasht dancing school—so they were able to keep up their theatrical lessons as well as (actually, better than) their regular education. The girls participated in a charity concert in one of...

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