大象传媒

I was a hairdresses in the Horden. I finished my training and my family bought me the business. I was exempt for a couple of years on account of having a one man business. When they brought hairdresses into the forces, I had to go. Its was January 5th 1944, leaving Newcastle station at six in the morning. I did my training in Dalkeith in Scotland. We had two enoculation carrying all our kit, plus bedding, before we saw our bed. The next place I was down in London during the heavy bombing. After that I came back to the North East and still did hairdressing on varius gun sites. My pay was 8 shillings and 6 pence a week. We had these sten guns. I was paid in tickets that people bought from battery office for 6 pence. The officers paid the same price. I was sleeping in the same dormitroy as the personal who manned the guns and when the alarm went off there was no more sleep until they came back again. Fortunatly I was never among the gun fire. Before going in the forces while hairdressing the culliery was bombed. Luckily it was when most of the men had crossed over the bridge from the mine shaft. My life in the army so differed from the life I had been living, it still amazes me. Being in the forces was when I learnt about life, meeting so many different personalities. I didn't meet many people from the North East. I feel regretful for losing alot of money when I went, but I learnt alot about life. I enjoed being the the forces. At my last station in High Howden near Wallsend I met the man who really taught to dance well. Then we had to take duty on the phones, and there was no light. On night we heard that a man had his home bombed and his wife was killed. One of the sites we went to noody had been there for years. There were dogs who were covered in fleas and the house was a state. We had to clear it up. My favourite site though was Howden. When D-Day came, we were dancing in the street and people came and took you into their homes. The people were lovely. If I hadn't have been in the forces I wouldn't have seen and learnt so much. It made you see the inside of people, to see what they were really like. I think its just experience of being a hairdresser and being in the forces, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything, even though I lost money. The worse part of the war though, was finding out about the people who had been killed. There was always someone worse off than yourself. I would like to ave been someone else in the war, but I was forced to do whagt I did, even though I asked to do something else. They were short of hairdresser, and they wanted people who had had three years experience, and you had to be 18 to join. I started hairdressing when I was 14, so I had no choice. I would like to have tried something else as I had been hairdressing for years. Some of the girl in my dorm were plotting movements and some girl handled the guns, and I wanted to do that, but we were told what to do.

When I came back, I still had my business, so I just carried on with that. I carried on till 1952, then I still did part time. I only finished last year! I used to cut my dad's hair, so when I went in the forces, I cut the men's hair easily, since they had lost their barber. I would like to have another six months in now! As it was then, not now.

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