Desert Aire woman watched as bombers swept toward London
Doris Astler, right, walked the longest pier in the world with her sister Frances Bagley and her brother-in-law Bob during her 1998 visit home to Billericay, Essex. The 1.5-mile pier is located at the resort of South End-on-Sea, not far from Billericay. Most visitors take the train one way and walk the other.
Doris Astler reads through some of the history she has recorded from her life.
DESERT AIRE - There aren't many people left in America who remember World War II from first-hand experience, but there is one at Desert Aire.
Dora Astler was born in England and spent her first 26 years there, growing up among the bombing of World War II. She was from Billericay, Essex.
Her home town has a small claim to American history. It was home to some of the Brits who, in 1620, sailed in the Mayflower to what was then the New World. She may be a descendant of pilgrims.
Astler came to the United States by way of marriage. Her first husband, an Englishman, always wanted to come to America. They made it to Canada in 1954, and Victoria, B.C. eventually became her home.
Dora was 10 years divorced when she met American Joe Astler, who was a widower, at a Bellevue church. They married and made their home in Birch Bay, where they owned and operated Borderland Mini Golf for 15 years.
The Astlers discovered Desert Aire when they helped a pastor from western Washington move here. They liked the location, purchased a property and moved onto it after they retired and sold the mini golf.
Dora has gone back to England a couple of times since she left. The last time was 15 years ago for her 70th birthday. Some of the bomb craters of World War II could still be seen. Mayflower Hall was still standing.
Billericay's community center was named Mayflower Hall in honor of the ship that brought the pilgrims to America. It is the building from which the ship's purser sold passage for that voyage.
Dora knows that history now, but she admits she really did not has a school girl. That story was more American history than English history. Dora knew Mayflower Hall as a place where she attended Sunday school.
Dora visited Mayflower Hall on the 1998 trip. She got together with the Mayflower Ladies for a presentation on the community of Bellerica, Mass., near Boston. That city was named in honor of the Billericay pilgrims.
On that same 1998 trip, Dora visited the Norsey Woods, where she and her friends gathered enough chestnuts for roasting on an open fire. Norsey Woods sticks out in her memory, for it was a place where two bombs were dropped during World War II.
Dora still remembers World War II, saying: "It was always so dark everywhere."
Dark at night, that is, when German bombers would sweep over Billericay en route to London. British citizens lived with blackouts throughout the battle of London.
"I used to step out the back door and watch the planes on their way to London," Dora said.
Dora's parents were Londoners but, fortunately, they settled in Billericay after marriage in 1925. They had an acre of land with 40 fruit trees, 300 chickens and three children, including Dora. She was 11, turning 12, when the war started.
The bombing was intended for London, but sometimes it landed in the Billericay area. Dora doesn't know if it was by design or by accident. According to documentaries, German bombers dropped the bombs at random when they became lost.
Dora recalled that she and a friend, going to their school one night heard a German un-manned buzz bomb overhead go quiet, fall and then explode. Scariest of all, buzz bombs fell wherever they ran out of fuel.
"We had a bomb shelter," Dora said. "My father took the floor out of one of the bedrooms and built an underground shelter in the house. Mom and I were in the house when two bombs dropped one day. I still see the craters when I go home."