大象传媒

I was working in the office at Platt Bros and I'd been there for 3 years when the war started but because we had to do some war work we worked in the office from 8.30 in the morning till 5 then we had a break for tea and from 5.30 till 6 and from 6 till 8 we had to go in the works where I packed smoke bombs.

We could work faster than the girls who'd been doing that all day, and because we were being paid overtime for how much work we did, we probably didn't do badly at all. And I saved that money to get married in 1943. I can鈥檛 remember how much. But I know that was the only savings we had.

My wedding was as good as you can have in those days. I was married in church and we had the reception at Hill Stores but you could only have 40 people. So being from a big family I could easily find 40. You couldn't have any entertainment afterwards.

I did belong to a local church that was nearby so we did go and have a bit of entertainment in one of the rooms there.

I wore what was called a Sievers Blue outfit which was a dress and a short jacket because I didn't have enough coupons to buy a white dress and neither did my bridesmaids.

I have still got it and I can still wear it.

I went as far as Cartmell in Grange over Sands for my honeymoon. We went on the train to Preston and then up to Cartmell for a week because a friend that I worked with had an aunty who kept a boarding house.

My other wartime memory is a bad one. We'd been to a Christmas party at a friend's house. It was up Park Road in Oldham. It was after midnight and we had to walk home though Glodwick to Greenacres.

As we got up to the top of Greenacres in the cemetry we heard a doodlebug. An old lady came to her door and asked. 'What is it? What's going on?'

'It's alright, love', I said, 'It's going over. You go in and you'll be alright.'

But as it passed over Greenacres Cemetry, two seconds after I said this there was an horrific crash and there was a great red ball of fire in the distance and you could hear all the glass breaking as it demolished a row of houses on Abbeyhills Road.

It so happened that there was a wedding party there, being near Christmas and 19 people were killed.

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