大象传媒

My earliest recollection of the war was standing in the garden in Dalmally Road and watching a doodlebug being chased by a Spitfire. I was nine years old. I also remember being sent home early from Woodside School as an air raid was imminent. My most vivid memory was the day that a doodlebug came down in Dalmally and Capri Roads. We had a Morrison shelter in our front room, and we lay awake listening to them going over, the engine cutting out and the explosion somewhere.

It was 1945, a Saturday morning around 9 am Mum had gone to the shops. I remember my sister Pat, and I were in the front room. Pat was in the shelter and I was playing on the floor outside the shelter. We had heard the drone of the doodlebug and suddenly she pulled me into the shelter and within no time all the windows all blew in. If I had still been on the floor I would have been cut to pieces. My sister had really save my life. I can remember the front door was at the top of the stairs. The emergency services, as I remember, were on the scene almost immediately, as if they were following these things around.

When repairs on the houses began slate tiles were stacked outside houses that needed roof repairs. I ran into our house one day and sliced my leg against the edge of the slates which meant being rushed to Mayday Hospital to have it stitched. That is still vivid in my mind.

After the war we had the street party. Tyhe bomb site became the playground for us and we had great times playing there, especially 5 November when we used to have a big bonfire. It seemed a shame at the time that the houses had to be rebuilt.

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