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Name Mrs Sheila McCluskey
Interview Date 6th May 2005
Subjects covered Make do and Mend, Victory 1945, War Work.
Location Oxford,
People Included Morris Motors, Metal Product Recovery Depot.

This is an edited extract of a recorded interview conducted by Museum of Oxford with Mrs Sheila McCluskey. It has been submitted to the People’s War website with her permission. A full version of the interview transcript and audio recording will be available at the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies.

Make do and Mend
… make do and mend in those days and my mother did she was a very good dress maker and she used to make my brothers trousers and jackets and everything really and my little dresses so she was yes she was very good.

Victory 1945
I remember the yes the the V.E. day and the parties cos we had the street parties we had loads round by us... I think every street had a street party yeah I do remember those yeah they were wonderful had these great big trestles going down the road and we all had paper hats I mean where they where they all came from I haven't a clue but yeah…
Because they would have one in one street and then they'd have another in another street and so they were going on all the time you only went to the one round your area but….it was lovely, yep.

War Work
When I left school because I left school at thirteen …I really wanted to be on the telephones to be a telephone operator and but I managed to get a job up at the works Morris Motors and they put me to a place that was up on the Horsepath Road called Metal Produce Recovery Depot now that was where all the planes came in the crashed planes and everything and the men used to sort them out and they used to sort the perspex from them out and the men used to make rings do you remember those rings? and I was on one of these old fashioned switchboards where you had to pull the wires up and put them in but I loved that I was up there for three years …

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