大象传媒

I was born in 1912, just before the First World War. A war to end all wars they said. But 21 years later World War Two was declared!

Most women did not work during those days. During 1939 when war began I was pregnant with my third child, it was late in my pregnancy and my baby daughter was born into the war in October 1939.

We were very frightened when war broke out, and I was very sick with my pregnancy, and when gas masks were distributed you could imagine how I felt. If I felt noxious without a gas mask what was I going to be like with one on!

After the baby was born you could get food rations for babies. But I think the deprivations of wartime stayed with us long after the war. This was because when the war was over, there was still rationing. Bananas had not been seen for years, and drawing near the end of the war rationing, there was a suddenly a banana option. I paid 15/- (about 75p) for one banana just as war was drawing to a close, for my daughter who was in hospital with tonsillitis, and guess what? She did not like it!

During the war shops were open from 9am to 5pm, they shut for lunch 1pm to 2pm and Saturday mornings, there was no Sunday opening.

Traditionally, housewives worked to a set agenda; Mondays were for washing clothes, ironing on Tuesdays. We lived in Mackie Road in 1935. These were new houses, and very pleasant. There were fields still all around us when we moved in. I remember we had to change our shoes after walking through muddy fields from the bus stop. During the war and after my husband worked at the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

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