大象传媒

On behalf of Joan Davis, with her permission, Mark Jeffers has written this story.
In September 1939, when the war started, I was nine. Everything was rationed; you had so much butter, so much sugar, so much bacon. Everybody had those food restrictions. In our house there was twelve and I used to have to get twelve ration books. The worst thing was the food situation. You were given dried eggs and only a little bit of bacon and butter. It was great when you got a banana though. I remember walking through the town and seeing a queue of people outside a shop because they had got some fruit in. Whenever you saw a queue during the war, you always joined it.
But it was good, during the war people all clung together more so than they do now. We were all in a wee group and we all tried to help one another and share with each other. It certainly taught you lessons in the war, it taught you an awful lot of lessons. It made you very humble.
There were many soldiers stationed around Lisburn. First there were the British and they were stationed at FortHill School. The British Officers used to stay in the big house there and the soldiers stayed in aluminium huts. After the British left, the Belgians came and were stationed there.
Thiepval barracks was full of soldiers at that time, as was the town itself. American soldiers stayed in Langford Lodge in Crumlin. They were here to defend and I remember them coming into Lisburn. I don鈥檛 know what they were her to defend, or whether they were here for a rest but they were sent here anyway.
We always tried to make friends with the soldiers and treat them well. Every Christmas time we brought a soldier into our home for Christmas dinner. We had a soldier that came to us one year and do you know what his name was? Bob Hope! So we thought that the American comedian Bob Hope was coming but instead we got Bob Hope from England.
My mummy used to bring soldiers into her home to make them feel at home. If she had of had family miles and miles away she would have wanted someone to look after them.
One soldier, Jimmy Mitchell, who came to my mummies house during the war was from Glasgow. I went to go ice-skating in Glasgow and visit my sister and I met Jimmy when I was walking down SauchieHall Street. That was a coincidence and we kept in touch for a long time after that.

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