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Mrs Ireland was a little girl when war broke out but remembers the day clearly. This is the story she told the library staff about the war.

The day the war broke out all the adults were intently listening to the radio when the announcement came through. When they said we were at war she remembers thinking "what were they talking about?" - "what did war mean?"

My aunt and grandmother suggested I go away off home and this "war" was churning in my mind. Halfway home a thunder storm broke out and she remembers thinking "was this part of the war?". She became really frightened and took shelter in the big engine shed at the end of the wagon base (near where the restaurant Chimney's is today).

Later this all fell into place and life in Waterside was fairly normal except we did have blackouts, rationing and the school even dug up part of the playground to supply potatoes and other vegetables which were later bought by the villagers. This was our part of the "Dig for Victory" contribution.

Mrs Ireland's grandfather - Mr Boyle - formed the Home Guard (Local Defence Volunteers)and was in charge throughout the war. He had been an officer in the First World War and he encouraged the building of Air Raid Shelters which were later known as Nissan Huts. These were erected and covered with sandbags for additional protection.

These was also a power station in Waterside (Dunaskin Power Station)and the basement was to be used as a communal centre for the workers. In the 1930 and 40s there were a lot of industry in the area (today Waterside is a small hamlet mainly consisting of a heritage centre) and so there were a lot of people to be housed.

Waterside also threw open its doors to the evacuees mostly from Glasgow and Clydebank areas. This almost doubled the numbers in our school. However they only seemed to stay for a short time -with 90% going back fairly soon. Although one girl remains in the area today as she never heard from her family again.

Gas masks were issued to everyone and had to be carried everywhere you went. They were issued in cardboard boxes which soon fell apart. We discovered that the tins used for dried baby milk were ideal for carrying the gas masks. We punched a hole in each side - and tied string through the holes and carried it over our shoulders. Part of the school curriculum then included gas mask drill - when the siren was sounded everyone had to put on their gas masks as quickly as possible and crawl underneath their desks. We remained there till the all-clear was sounded. We usually amused ourselves by making rude noises through the gas masks - as children do. Teachers were not amused.

Rationing was one of the realities of war that everyone faced and we were lucky to be surrounded by farms and could supplement with extra milk and eggs. There were also lots of rabbits to supplement our meat. I remember one day soldiers were billeted in the school at the Chapel. We became quite friendly with them and I think that perhaps I was a "clippy" (cheeky) wee thing because one day the cook called me into his tent and said "open up your jacket" - he then tucked in a 7lb tin of jam and told me to run home with it. My mother's eyes lit up when she saw it - and it was readily shared with our neighbours in the adjoining 10 houses. I was also coming home from school one day and passed the brickworks where ladies were employed because the men were away at war - one of the good looking girls was friendly with the Americans at Prestwick and she called me over and gave me an orange. It was so big I needed two hands to hold it - this too was treasure indeed.

One of the local residents from the railway cottages had a large greenhouse in which he grew tomatoes. Paddy Rory sold tomatoes - which I can still remember the taste of today! And talking of taste I remember at the end of the war a consignment of Canadian Red Apples came to our store - it was almost Christmas and my mother hid the apples to put in our stockings but the delicious smell of these hidden apples gave away their hiding place.

Toys were very scarce and joiners and handymen of the village would make wooden toys, mostly for boys - tanks and aeroplanes.

I remember the bombing of Clydebank very well and watched the German planes going over at night. I think double summertime was in place during the war (this is when the clocks were turned back 2 hours)and we could sit outside in the "gloaming" (twilight) until late. We looked up at stars and searchlights which you could see clearly across the sky and only now do I realise how close Glasgow was to us. As I child we didn't travel far.

My father was in the army, sometimes he came on leave without warning, and I can always remember the joyous feeling of seeing him swing off the double decker bus at the door. I would shout "My daddy's here, my daddy's here" He always came leaden with chocolate that he had saved from his rations to give to my brothers and me. The sad bit was when he swung back on the bus to go back again.

My friends came out one morning and told us their cousin had been buried alive in the Plymouth air-raids. We were really shocked as this boy had been on holiday in Waterside two months previously and we knew him well. Fortunately he was rescued but this brought home to us the reality of war which we in Waterside did not experience.

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