大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Joan Campbell, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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All the iron railings and all was taken off the houses and the walls and all that for machinery. But we done the best we could.

[local industry]
We always had textiles in Bangor, but I think the shipyard round about Ballyhome was the most important then. Fro fixing small ships, now, not like the shipyard in Belfast. This was for small ships and so-forth. Repair dock, it used to be, for the different boats, if they could do it.

[yanks]
We used to have the Americans. We used to have, took over the cook-house. Capronis was the cook-house, and we lived actually opposite it down the Vennel in Bangor. And they used to say to us 鈥� that鈥檚 the only time we got sort of different things to eat. And they used to say to my mum 鈥淗ey ma鈥檃m, would you like a tin of peaches for the tea tonight?鈥� tin of peaches? It was like gold dust. They were wonderful. They were very kind, very kind.
I was young at the time. They were very good to us, and very generous.
[US music]
Jitterbugging and all this sort of thing. I was still a teenager, well, I was still at school, but in those days you weren鈥檛 allowed to talk to them and all this. But we did talk. And the cook鈥檚 town was, as I say, where the soldiers came. They made the food there, and the cinema 鈥� they took it over, and that was where the soldiers went to have their meals. Down the cinema.

[Did you listen to the American Forces Network Radio?]
Yes. We had [a radio at home]. That鈥檚 all we had was a radio, there wasn鈥檛 television. It was just a radio. Yes, we had turned on the music and the jitterbug was there, and the boys, they were older than me and they thought it was great. And then my dad came in and says 鈥渢urn that off, and put the news on. Churchill鈥檚 speaking!鈥�

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