大象传媒

Edited Transcript of Margaret Le Cras interviewing Mrs Evelyn Bryce

(continued from 鈥淗orticultural work during the German Occupation of Guernsey鈥�)

Apart from that I can鈥檛 remember much about what we did there, but when we went to the depot, the people who grew the beans, brought them, and the place we went to was the same Irene that I used to go[ ] before, and it was her father鈥檚 greenhouses, so he was more or less in charge, and there was I suppose a dozen girls, we鈥檇 take our cushions, but there was no heating, it was so cold in the winter, so we鈥檇 do some exercises to warm up, and we鈥檇 sing, you know, some of the girls, we were church goers, so we鈥檇 have sung hymns, choruses, so we had fun.
I tell you what, I was specially friendly with this Irene whose father had the depot, and the beans that were damaged, we had boxes to put them in as we shelled them, but if they were damaged they couldn鈥檛 be used for sowing, then we could put them in our bags, little marks鈥�
So, one day, some foreign labourers saw us, and came in the greenhouse. They looked terrible, and their feet were all in rags.We were so sorry for them. Some of them were Dutch, I don鈥檛 know if they were all Dutch, so we were. The girls said, why don鈥檛 you go, take Irene for a little walk down the garden, and if the foreigners come we鈥檒l give them some beans, so that Irene wouldn鈥檛 know. We agreed, off we went, and when we came back the foreigners were there, and the girls had given them some beans, but the pockets were broken, and the beans were falling out all over the place. It was really awful, but I never heard, there was no reprimand
One day, when these foreign workers came, I had some sweets with me, because I was the only one, I think, who used to go to queue for sweets, and they wanted some. I said, well you鈥檝e got to sing for them, I don鈥檛 know how we made them understand, perhaps some of them did speak English, so they sang, to get a sweet, so I gave them a sweet. There were three or four of them,

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