大象传媒

"Im a pupil from Prudhoe Community High School, Northumberland, entering Joe and Angus's storys onto the website, and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use".

Joe Norman was twelve years old when the war started, and so was not in the army, as he only became old enough the year that the war ended. During the war he was privately evacuated to a farm in Cumberland, and so he is glad that he usually had plenty of food, although he does remember always being short of sugar.
Angus MacKay was seventeen when the war started and he joined the RAF when the war started. He moved around from place to place during the war, and his last posting was in scotland.

My first questions were about the change in society, and in the way people treated each other.
Joe Norman: 'I think that there was a lot less thuggery and crime around and on the streets, and of course their was a lot fewer of these yobs on the street, because we were all in the army'
Angus MacKay: 'I remember what it was like in the RAF, back then it all seemed like a lot of fun, watching the tails from the dog fights overhead, and moving from town to town, hah, i think had a lass in most of them.'

My second questions were about their personal lives
Joe Norman: 'well, living on a farm was a new experience for me, although i was probably still a lot luckier than most people because i usually had plenty to eat, but the downside was that we didnt get much news. We had no TV, no radio, and we rarely got the daily newspapers. i didnt even know about Dunkirk until two months after it had happened!'
Angus MacKay: 'oh, it wasn't bad, i do remember that the foodinthe mess on Sundays was always very good, i remember we had roast hams and beef, but of course, thats because most of the food whent to the troops. the most annoying part of the war was that it ended on a tuesday, and we got payed on a wednesday. So the high ups were like ' go on, get out, the war is over'

My third questions were about their feelings at the start and the end of the war
Joe Norman: 'At the beginning it didnt really sink in, mind I was only twelve. but I do remember being very afraid whent he first air raid siren went off, because we all thought that the bombs were going to come dropping straight away, but i remember that no matter what I was never scared when I was in the bomb shelters. At the end I was quite dissapointed because we had all known that the war was coming to an end for about a year, and the actual end was a bit of an anticlimax.'
Angus MacKay: 'at the beginning I was quite excited, because I thought, yay, at last something interesting. then I went and joined up to the RAF. At the end my feelings were simply 'go get pissed'and a bit of annoyment. I remeber being quite upset, because I think we had all been expecting life to go back to normal, but it didnt, i mean, even rationing went on for several years after the war had ended, although it was a lot more leniant, and people bought and sold more.

My last questions were on rationing and the food, althoug alot about the food had already been answered
Joe Norman: 'well, rationing didnt really affect me because we had plenty of food on the farm. I do remember the slogan 'dig for vitory' that was put up all over the place. that was the only time that anyone had anything more than any of the others, and that was only because the rich had more land to grow food on. I do remember thinking that it was quite good because everybody was equal, so there was no fights and people in bars would just come up and talk to you, nowadays that would never happen, but back then you could walk into a bar in a part of the country that youd never been in before, and in five minutes youd be holding a pint and surrounded by mates.'

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