大象传媒

War Reminiscences by Mrs C Forbes

I was eight years old when World War Two started. I was at Craigieknowes School. The thing I remember most was when sweeties started getting scarce, also fruit. If you had a child under five you got a green ration book and you got fruit with that. I was the youngest in our family so we didn鈥檛 have any green books. I remember the sweet ration was 戮 lb per month. Flora my pal and I knew this boy called wee Tommy. He was younger than us, but he could sell you a months sweet coupons for a shilling. Don鈥檛 know where he got them. I often wonder did he end up a rich man. He was a nice boy. I suppose that鈥檚 what they call the black market.

I remember the Greenock Blitz. It was horrible. When we came out of the shelter when the all clear went, the building in Smillie St was flattened, everyone was so upset. Also we then heard that my Aunt鈥檚 house in Ladyburn St had been bombed. The bomb went into the middle of the building. They were in the top flat, how they survived we will never know. When my parents asked her had she been scared, she said when the fireman rescued her and took her down the ladder she was scared her nightie would blow up as the street was crowded with people. A lot of people we knew had been killed, it was so sad.

One day we were sent home from school early. I stood at the top of the stairs going from Weir Street to Gibshill. This huge ship was burning tin the water. I couldn鈥檛 understand how it could burn with so much water around it. I think a lot of men died on that ship. It was a French ship. I think that is the reason for the French Memorial at Lyle Hill.

Going back to the Greenock Blitz. The sugar house and the distillery had been bombed. The smell around the town was awful. We didn鈥檛 have water for a while and my mother sent us to the hills where we filled a bucket from the stream and carried it home.

One day on the way to school a Fyffes banana lorry rounded the corner too fast and a crate of bananas fell on the road. All you saw were children running in all directions clutching a bunch of bananas. We fled to the hills where we all had a great feast. There was almost a dozen of us. I鈥檓 afraid none of us went to school that day. That night my brother Mick and I were sick. We couldn鈥檛 tell my mother what had made us sick or we would have got a hiding for taking something that didn鈥檛 belong to us and also for missing school. Next morning at school assembly the Head Master said an unfortunate incident had happened outside the school and a poor driver had lost a crate of bananas. He was also worried that some of the children had missed school. He looked upwards as he spoke. I often think he was thanking the Lord for our gift. We never got punished for it and he never asked any more about it.

We didn鈥檛 seem to get much sleep as the men seemed to work all night in the shipyards and you could hear the noise from them, changed days now. My eldest brother Jimmy was in the Merchant Navy. We used to worry about him. He had been torpedoed once that we knew about, but he got home all right. Unfortunately, after the war he took a job ashore and a building collapsed on him. He died a few days later. He was only in his thirties.

When you saw people in a line outside a shop you just joined in. Flora my pal and I joined this queue thinking it was something good. We ended up with a mug each. We felt like a couple of mugs standing all that time. Our mothers were pleased(we weren鈥檛) as mugs were scarce.

For older people who liked a drink and a smoke, these commodities were scarce. There seemed to be one cigarette that was plentiful. It was called Pasha. If you got on a bus the smell was awful. You got twenty clothing coupons per person. I think this was for six months. A pair of shoes was seven coupons, but the shops started selling wooden clogs. Don鈥檛 know where they came from, but they were only two coupons. I had a red pair and I thought they were great. We were lucky, we had two aunts in America and they used to send us dresses, so we didn鈥檛 do too bad for clothes. Also they sent us food parcels. The thing I loved most was dried egg. It was great for making omelettes.

As we got older we had concerts for the Red Cross on top of the shelters. We would sing and dance and someone would go round with a tin and collect money. We took the money to old Lady Isabelle Kerrs house in the Esplanade. She was the Red Cross lady. We got our names in the variorum of the Telegraph for one of the concerts. As a special treat we were allowed to go the Greenock Empire with my older sisters. The Logan family used to do pantomime there at times. If I remember right they were called Short and Dalziel. I think that was Jimmy Logan鈥檚 parents. I was in Lily Martins school of dancing and Jack Short came up to ask for six tall girls to act as villagers in the Christmas panto. I was tall for my age and was one of the ones picked. I thought I was a star. We got one pound for the first week. I thought it was a fortune. The second week two big policemen came backstage and asked our ages. I said I was twelve and so did another girl. They said you had to thirteen before you could act on the live stage. Old Jack just told us to go, but he didn鈥檛 pay us for that week. My brother Peter who was a bit of a comedian said that Jack must have been a bit short that week. We didn鈥檛 think it was funny!

At home my dad listened to his radio a lot and you were not allowed to talk when the news was on. Also when an awful man called Lord Haw Haw came on my dad hated him.

If any of the neighbours managed to get extra sugar and make home-made tablet you usually got a piece of it. But one day this girl gave my pal and I a slim piece of chocolate. We thought she was being kind until we both ended up with runny tummys, it was a laxative. We never spoke to that girl again!

My sister Bridget who was twelve years older than me married an English boy called Harry Harris. She had been a nurse and met him in Birmingham where she nursed. They were a lovely couple. He was in the army. He was playing football for the army. The Germans bombed them in a daytime raid and poor Harry was killed. It took Bridget a long time to get over it.

In the later part of the war the yanks came into the war. The troop trains used to go along the railway line that was called the silent railway. The soldiers used to throw out bars of chocolate. It was, if I remember correctly called Hersheys chocolate. We thought it was great. We were not supposed to go near this railway line. Some local boys had been killed while playing on this line. One of the boys we knew, we were all so sad about this. It was awful.

Untitled Poem

I do not like the Germans
Because they bombed our town
You see I was only ten
When they came to town
They dropped their bombs
They wrecked our homes
We never had a childhood
Because of them
They must have been really bad men
My friends and I we could not play
Because of the blackouts every day
We had to be home by five
We were told that was the only way we could stay alive
The blinds were on the windows
The lights were all put out
In case them German bombers
Came back to start a fight
I hate them every night.

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