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"I'm a pupil from Prudhoe Community High School, Northumberland, entering Irene Greig's story onto the website, and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use."

I was born during the battle of Britain week, September 1940. I lived in Wylam in a stone built cottage. I was an only child but I had lots of cousins. I lived with my mother and father. My dad didn’t go to war because he had a disability, i.e. one eye. He was in the home guard and was on the committee organising accommodation for the evacuees coming into the village. My mum was a farmer’s daughter so she could cook, make clothes, knit and she could get eggs from her brother in Belsay. We were very lucky. Our house wasn’t bombed. I didn’t know anyone who was bombed, although the threat was always there and air raid shelters were built in the gardens in the village. I have memories of my friend and I making a house under the stairs with cushions and blankets to shelter in, in case the German’s dropped a bomb! I also had a child’s ‘Mickey mouse’ gas mask! We didn’t have a television but we had a radio which was important because we got information about the war. There were also comedy shows and plays which we would listen to. My mum played the piano so we would sit around in a circle while she played and my dad would sing. We had to make our own amusement. I didn’t feel deprived of anything because I didn’t have anything to compare my life to.
Very few people had cars. The doctors were the only people who had cars so we were stuck in the village most of the time. My mum made all my clothes. I can remember that she knitted me a bathing costume which would sag down to the ground when it was wet!
Because everything was so scarce and rationed, there weren’t many toys around and those that were in the shops were very expensive. My dad made lots of my toys; he made me a ‘bogey’ and a dolls house and my mum knitted me a doll called Polly! She also made me a ‘clooty doll’ which was Northumbrian for cloth and she was made of my old clothes. When I was five, my cousin gave me the ‘family’ china faced doll; it was made in 1903 in Germany. I was very fortunate. I also got a tricycle passed down from my cousin. Because I lived in the country, there was no need to evacuate but we did have a mother and her young son, Kenneth staying with us and they were from North Shields. I recently got a letter from Kenneth.
I was very lucky. My diet was organic. My dad grew the vegetables and my mum was able to get eggs and butter from her brother. I think my diet was healthier in the war because now we all eat ready-made, pre-packed, horrible food! Later in my life, I heard that people in the village who didn’t have access to country product often had green margarine! Everything was fresh and home-grown. We had chickens in the garden. We couldn’t get fast food, pre-packed or frozen foods. There weren’t even freezers. We just had a lump of marble in the pantry.
I visited the doctor during the war. It was in the village. I had the usual childhood ailments like measles and chickenpox. The doctor was very family-orientated and he had lots of old fashioned remedies. There was nothing like penicillin. You didn’t have to make an appointment; you just went if you were ill. The doctor knew everybody. He frequently came to our house. I was told that the doctors would actually do operations on people’s kitchen tables! When I was three, I attended the hospital as an inpatient and the doctor had to take me and my mum in his car. I was in for three days. It was when I had my tonsils out. The things I can remember are the doctor telling me I should have a lot of ice cream and my mum buying me a new teddy bear for being brave! Visitors were allowed and my mum cane to see me the day after the operation. Medication would come from the doctor.
Everybody stuck together and helped each other out. We recycled everything and nothing was wasted. We shared everything in the village, if it was clothes, toys or food it would find a home with someone. I wasn’t like today. In a way, the war brought us together as friends.

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