Mrs Fettes disusses friends and family who were affected by the war.

Were you evacuated during the war?
No. No. Where I lived, people were evacuated to where I lived. And came to well they came to the school where I used to go to. Because I really lived in the country between Glasgow and Stirling.

People came to you?
Yes. People came to our village. Children were evacuated to our village.

Were you scared?
Well. You were a wee bit at first but then when the war started. At first it started in September Thirty-nine, and for the first winter there was absolutely nothing happened, every thing just went on, there was the blackout, food was just the same, but they went - it was coming into 1940 things got a bit - the Germans started pushing - instead of trying to come through the Maginot Line the went round about it and that was when war started and it got really nasty - you got scared then - but then you got used to it. You just never thought about it - it was just going on.

How old were you when the war started?
I was 15. 15, I had left school and was at college and then I got my first job.

Did you lose anyone in the war?
Friends. Lots of boys that I was at school with were killed in the war, but not - not family - no.

Was your life difficult?
Ah. Towards the end it started to get really difficult 'cos there wasn't a lot of food and the blackout was horrible. You probably just cannot imagine what it was like - no street lights and no lights coming out of any houses - you were dependant on the stars - and you were just - oh I wanted - no I didn't want it to be a moonlight night because when it was a moonlight night you were going to get bombed so you wanted the dark nights but then dark nights it was very difficult when you were going out and if you were travelling in the buses - the buses were all just had wee lights inside the bus and the blackout curtains down and the driver would shout out what stop he was coming to so that if you were maybe going somewhere where you werena' exactly sure where you were going it was really very difficult.

Was any of your family called up?
Yes, my two - my brother - one brother was called up - well if I say called up - he volunteered right at the very beginning. Because he was a member of a pipe-band - he was a piper - and so that all the boys could stay together - when they knew the war was starting, that whole pipe-band went to Stirling Castle en-mass, and they became the pipe-band for the 7th Argylls. Now there was another village - Castlecarry - quite near where we lived, where there was another pipe-band and that then that village pipe-band they joined up en-mass as well. And they became the pipers for the 8th Argylls. And while my brother was with the 7th, they were in France and he was captured at St.Valery, he didn't get as far as Dunkirk, he was captured at St.Valery, where as the Allandale pipe-band they were in North of France. No, not North of France - Egypt and they were all killed - it was a very small village - the band was made up of uncles, nephews, brothers, families - this village was - just really one family - the McGlochlans - and all the men were in the band and they all joined up together, they were all in North Africa together and they were all killed together - a whole family just wiped out. In the first push, in the first push they were just wiped out completely, so they were quite a lot of friends we all knew.

Did you have any contact with your friends during the blackout?
Oh yes. You went out at night, just the same as you did now, only you went out at night and you went to the pictures, and you went to the dancing, just the same as teenagers, you just got on with it, you couldna' sit in all the time. Just got on with it.

Did you see any of your friends after school?
After school? Well, I wasn't at school, I was left school when the war started, but I did have my teenage friends. Yes, we all went out. An' went to night-school - never could - went to night school and plugged it quite a lot.

Are there any friends that you have who were at school?
No. In that, we all left school, we all left school at 15, An' then I was very fortunate, that I was able to go on to college, but I only went to college for a year.