Discusses the blackouts and receiving letters from her brother, who was in the Army

Did you have any TV or electricity?
There was no electricity in the house that I lived in. There was electricity but no TV we had the radio but that was all. There was no TV at that time.

When did you find out that the war was happening, were you at school?
No no. Em. It was - actually war was declared on the Sunday morning, and we - it wasn't until we heard it on the radio.

How did it feel when that was said?
That was awful - you just went owh owh (shudder).

How long did it take to get set up with the curtains and everything?
I did - I didn't do much about it, I left all of that to my mother to do I was 16, I wasn't bothered about curtains. But no we - em, you had to go and buy black material and I remember you got sticky tape, you know that brown sticky tape that you tie up parcels with, the broad stuff an' we had to put that all over the windows, criss-cross the windows wi' that in case of bombs coming and to stop the glass from shattering, and then you had your blackout curtains which you had to have closed. Or you would get the wardens coming round an' knock on your door.

Did you ever see anyone with their curtains not shut right?
Oh, now and again you would forget and you would walk into a room and light the gas not the, and then draw your curtains instead of coming in room an' drawing the curtains. Sometimes you did, you made a mistake, everybody did.

Did you like help send letters to people in the war?
Did I send letters? Oh yes. Wrote to my brother who was a prisoner of war an' I wrote to my - he was my husband when he came home - boyfriend we wrote regularly. That was about the only people I wrote to - my brother.

Did you have any animals?
Yes, I had a dog. And he was really really scared that night of the bombing in Clydebank.

When you got a letter back from your brother were you shocked or anything?
Well he was allowed to write so many letters, now there is pictures of my brother.
[reaching for pictures]
See they had, they had concert parties that's my brother there, got a sheet or something round him supposed to be a kilt and he's got his bagpipes. That one there. And that was him in Aldershot before they went away. Em that was the 7th Argylls or part of the 7th Argylls, a band that.
[mixed voices]
And that's him in a prisoner of war camp. Can you see it? Now there's a letter to his mum Mrs J Cumming and its from Stalag 9 that's Camp 9 see that was the number of the camp he was in.
[Mixed noises]
And that was the drummer, the Lead drummer in the Pipe band - he died in the prisoner of war camp and that was his funeral. I think the Germans allowed my brother to send that one home - just to let them see - so that the people at home see - that they did bury, they were allow them to bury their dead.

Who actually killed your brother?
My brother wasnt killed in the war he was a prisoner of war, an' he came home, but that, that coffin there was his friend. That was his friend in the Pipe band who died in the prisoner of war camp.