大象传媒

I interviewed a woman named Margaret Parker who is currently eighty years of age. She gave me a very emotional, but sometimes funny, report on her time during World War II. For the first half she spent her time living at home with her family, however towards the end she moved to Glasgow to begin life in a Convent, which was a stressing time because she had no friends or relatives to comfort her. I will explain more about that part later.

Her most specific memory was of that bitter Sunday morning in September when all the family were gathered around the radio and it was announced that the war had begun. Every day after that they would listen in anticipation for the war to end, sadly, that didn鈥檛 happen for many years and they lived every day in fear that it may have been the last. Her brother was called to go to war not too long after that, although he couldn鈥檛 because at the same time he broke his arm, so ironically, it was quite lucky! There was one thing that she mentioned about the blackouts: She had just begun piano lessons before the war had started and practiced in their parlour, but she really hated it. Then, because the thick blackout curtains were put up and it was constantly dark, she used it as an excuse not to do her piano lessons!

On the topic of school, with Margaret living in the country all of the evacuees were sent to live in their village and she could only attend school in the morning as the evacuee children had to go in the afternoon. There was one little girl she knew who was out playing and found a family of evacuees wandering about and she invited them to her house, much to her parents surprise when they got home. Kindly, they agreed for them to stay there. This was not always the case though some people treat the evacuees as slaves and made them work to stay in the house. From these events Margaret met a lot of friends, some of whom she still knows today.

The worst part about it all was the rationing. Everything was rationed from food to shoes and even stockings and wallpaper! People tried to make the best of it by painting the walls and making patterns in it with old rags. Or for the ladies with no stockings they drew patterns on their legs with black pens. The food was very bland during the war with the most common food being sliced carrots. They were only allowed to buy two eggs a month and virtually starved most of the time. Farmers had it easy; they grew their own food and looked after animals so they were fine. There was one Sunday where a lady was hanging out her washing and saw an escaped chicken, she scurried it into her house and had the best Sundays dinner for years!

Towards the end when she joined the convent she moved to Glasgow, however, she went alone and didn鈥檛 know anybody there. She had one friend, who was a nun, and she went down to Coventry. Unfortunately, she was hit by a bomb and lost her legs. To add to the misery, while she was in Glasgow she was caring for a preacher who was blind, he was hit by a grenade and was wounded. Not long after this some of the nuns were sent away in trucks to prison by the Germans because they were English. Luckily, Margaret wasn鈥檛 one of them. As one final point I must add that Britain became a very religious country during the war as people literally flocked to Church!

Sean Scott and Georgina Hooper

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