Discusses life during the war and her feelings at the end of the war

How did you feel when the war was over?
We went mad - Whoof! - delighted, the only thing was the war in Europe was over, an' you still had the Japanese war going on, so like my husband, well wasn't my husband then, he was in the Far East and he wasn't come home he didn't come home for another two three years after that, couple years after that. So that it was sort of broken up. It was, it was a strange thing we were excited because my brother was coming home, but the people next door they weren't , they weren't excited because her son was a Japan - prisoner with the Japanese, so he wasn't getting home. There was other people down the road whose son had been killed, so her son wasn't, so they weren't excited. It was very mixed.

What was your job during the war?
I was a typist, but I worked for the County Council, so by working for the County Council and working for the County Clerk, and because we did emergency relief work. We were there if - if there had been bombs dropped in Stirling, which fortunately there wasn't. We had an organisation, it was called the Emergency Relief Organisation, that we had loads of great big house that was stacked full of provisions an' that we could go in and help other people, and because I was quite high up in that organisation I didn't have to go work in munitions and I didn't have to go into the ATS or the WRAFS or the WAAFS or the WRENS. So I was fortunate enough to be missed.

Did you have any difficulties travelling anywhere?
No, not travelling to and fro from work. Ordinary travelling like going from one place to another that was quite easy, it was no problems there. You did - well you could not travel abroad as you do now, that, we didn't do that in these days anyway, we didn't travel abroad.

Where did you live?
The Denholm - Denholmhead which is a village between Glasgow and Stirling that is the nearest and quite near Falkirk.
Yes, there was one night in particular, I worked in Glasgow at that time and em I was at night-school with my girlfriend and we came out and you could hear the bombers going over and my boyfriend at that time he met me coming out of night school we were to walk home, we were walking home when we heard the bombs dropping in Glasgow, you could hear them what Glasgow's about 20 miles away and you could hear them at the time I got home eh my mother was waiting for me - whoo whoo whoo whoo where have you been come in - and em where's dad, - your dad's been called out - now my dad would be in his fifties at that time and that he was a plasterer, that he was called out and he was taken to Glasgow because he was part of a demolition squad and they went around and it was hot in Glasgow while the bombing was going on and they went around and they were making safe buildings that were half down, buildings that were dangerous, they brought them down properly an' he was away for two days an' you never heard from him. [mobile phone noise] There were no mobile phones in these days so we were just sat at home and just didn't know where dad was. I was quite scared. Although I worked in Glasgow at that time and the next morning I went to go to work and I left home at eight o'clock and normally that got me into Glasgow to start work for nine and we didn't get into work until one o'clock. It took me all that time to get from Denny to.

Did you have any - like when you were at home any bombs, did you hear any bombs getting closer?
Oh yes. That was scary, that was scary because I remember my mum and I were outside and you could hear the bombs dropping on Clydebank and that was awful going into work and seeing all the devastation on your way into work and em the man who was my boss at that time, he was just bombed out. His son was home on leave from the army - he was killed in the raid - it tis - it was quite awful.

How long did it take to do rationing?
How long did the rationing take? Well it started at the beginning of the war and I think we were still being rationed right into the nineteen fifties. Because you thought when the war was over you thought you were going to get everything back it was going to, thank goodness I wasn't a house wife in these days. The things that my mother did wi' food where she got from sometimes we didn't even ask.