大象传媒

Those American servicemen they came out of York Road station at 1 o鈥檆lock one morning when they landed here, and we were glad to see them. Although the war was nearly over, they only came in after Pearl Harbour, at the end of 41, or maybe after that. They were taken unawares and then they came in. There was a time when Hitler had travelled so fast up Europe that he came right up to France, and he stood at Calais (I read this in a paper myself). He stood with the binoculars and he looked over at the white cliffs of Dover and stated how long it would take him to get over. He said it would be only a few hours till it would be over.

The funny thing about it was, although we prepared for the war and we were in the ARP and the Red Cross and we always knew what we had to do, our whole system was 鈥淗e鈥檒l never get this far, because he鈥檚 got to come over England, and if he does he鈥檒l never come back.鈥� That was the rock we perished on, he took everything that came his way. It was really awful; it was the biggest shock to think that he could come the whole way. We used to listen to Lord Haw Haw and he was a bad rascal. He said "Those people in N. Ireland- we know where you are." We laughed our heads off! Can you imagine him even trying to get over here! We never thought he could do it! Lord Haw Haw was talking about the Easter Eggs, he interrupted programmes. When he came on he said "You鈥檒l be getting the bows for them tonight" and so we did. He used to call the Queen and King, Smiling Lizzie and Stuttering George. That鈥檚 how he addressed them, and he was an Englishman! It was William Joyce you called him, I remember the name. He was a bad rascal! We were sitting over here full of nerves and afraid of being killed and he was making fun.

Many times I was sitting in school when the sirens went off, one night they dropped a landmine not far away and a wee boy from my class was killed. I always remember him. He stepped on a landmine. We were also near the one in Percy Street, school was closed and we were all out on the street. We walked down the Shankill Road to the corner of Percy Street and there was a big heavy concrete slab off a roof and we knew that anybody inside was killed. At the time it was estimated there were 50 odd people killed, although some said 30, but I think it was over 50. It was really awful I was about 8 at the time. My sister and I came home one day, I鈥檇 left school and started my job, to find ARP鈥檚 on the street keeping us from where we lived. There was a concrete ground were we played and skipped and there was supposed to be a landmine on it, but it was really a part of a plane. When we tried to have a look the wardens wouldn鈥檛 let us. They read my name off a sheet and said "Your mother isn鈥檛 here" and we started to cry. They told us where we had to go and my sister and I were sent over to Neill鈥檚 Hill Park where my father was stationed. He was in the field watching his balloon while his family were being herded down. Aunties and my sister and I spent the night in a house in Neill鈥檚 Hill Park and then we were allowed to go home. They discovered it was non-explosive but it was really dreadful. Then they found my mother and we were reunited, it was desperate honestly. No wonder I went really mad the night they declared it was all over. First of all the 8th May was VE-victory in Europe, and the next was August 15th VJ- victory in Japan. We were out all night. Everything stopped and we all just enjoyed ourselves. The war was over in 45 but the rations didn鈥檛 go off until 1953, we didn鈥檛 know we had won the war until then. Slowly it all came back on the counters.

Even when my boy was born they never gave him tea. You only got 2ozs of tea and they didn鈥檛 give him any right on up until he was 5. They gave the child 2oz鈥檚 of tea at 5 years old. Until he was 14 he would have just drank milk. In the summertime during the rations you got stacks of sugar because that was the fruit season and they believed that you could look after your family and make jam and all the rest of it. Lots of people just kept the sugar in their cupboards. I could have gone on the black market because I was very careful. I鈥檒l tell you this, there were no obese people about we were all thin, I was never fat anyway. I have 2 sons, one married, one single, I say to the single one when I'm out and I see somebody like that "It鈥檚 as well seeing Hitler鈥檚 not around, it might help some people鈥檚 health."

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