Mr and Mrs Henderson discuss married life and work life during the war

Doesn't sound particularly wonderful to me. What did you do after 1943 when you left the pits?
I went into the building trade.

Was there a lot of building going on at that time?
Oh there were prefabs, building the prefabs was on that all the time, even built the prefabs up here an we got one eventually ourselves. Em. Then after that I got the chance of going up to Lossiemouth with a joiner friend of mine. I got 6 months of training and qualified as a journalist. Right. At that time, a joiner or plumber you did 6 months training and you came out as a journalist. But the tradesmen at that time didn't accept that. Sorta sent you to Newcastle if you ken what I mean. On'y way, I landed up in Lossiemouth I think, joinering with the joiners an that, to get the experience, but I stuck it 2 months and wanted home, and that was the end of that. I think I was no long home when I went back to the pits. Mainly at that time, you must remember, the young chaps hud to go there to get the extra money, more money. Cos outside the pits at that time there was nothing really.

No nothing particularly in this area.

An another thing the miners in these days the fathers always waited their son to finish the school to go with them. And that is what actually happened, my father worked in the pits, an he waited till I finished school to go with him to actually get started.

And that was it. Presumably if you had any sons they didn't go down the pits.
Ah always said that if I had had sons, we've 2 daughters, I would never have had a son would I've liked him to go to the pits.
Oh no, I would never recommend them, oh no. You may know I finished up - 1968 working in the mines. And I landed in Cowdenbeath Central Workshops and I was trained for 3 months to repair electric cables for the mines and plug them, vulcanise and plug them and a' that, and that was the happiest years of my life. 1968 till 1982, that's when I retired.

When did you get married?
1945, October 1945.

So just after the war ended?
That correct. The war ended in May.

So how did you two meet?
The dancing.
At the dancing.
That was common in these days.

So where was the dancing round about?
Pally.
Pally in Cowdenbeath.
Pally dancing.

Can I ask where the Pally in Cowdenbeath is?
It used to be but its not there now. It used to be, er now, you know the Post Office in Cowdenbeath going on up on well, what's on the corner now is it a pub, well at the back o there that wus where the Pally wus. There is lets see is it the Royal Bank of Scotland. That there The Royal Bank of Scotland and there is an opening an the Pally de dance they called it used to be up the back o there.
Up there. And did the dancing continue all through the war, they didna - no stoppages or anything like that - nothing stopped the dancing?
Oh there were aye dancing.
Oh no, there.
Then there was the Institute, which is still down there the now and they had dancing there an there was dancing in em -
The cooperative.
- The Cooperative Hall you know, at the Fountain as they call it, in Cowdenbeath.
Yes that's still there.
That was all dancing.
And there is Dunfermline, the Kinema Building
The Kinema Ballroom.
That's still there yet. With a different face lick. An Ice rink. And all these things during the war.

So it will be 60 years married this year
Well done.
In October

That's Super
Looking all right.
Lucky to have lasted so long.

Now husband was working in the mines, well your boyfriend at that time. What were you doing sort of during the war?
Well I used to work in the workshop in the Time Office in the Central Workshop afore up until I was married.

There must have been something that happened during the war?
Something that happened during the war?

I think Fife must have been one of the rare places that the war did na touch
Well I know for a fact that I used to be an awfa sound sleeper. And that bomb that dropped that was actually meant for the workshops, it landed on the railway, there the railway line went along there. And eh, when I went to my work in the morning, of course they all speaking about this, well I was brought up with my grandmother you see and she never said anything, she just let me sleep. I never heard this bomb drapping or anything and there aw speaking - what you slept through all that, and you never heard that - I remember them all speaking about that. So there wis quite a big hole in at the railway line and every one was down, up and down Thistle Street, that is where I lived, to see this.

So what did the make in the workshop again?
Cowdenbeath Central Workshop?

But what did they make in it?
There were different jobs in there were fitters, there were turners, an electricians and em.
It was all work for the mines, the pits.
But they had women down there during the war eh during the war you know.

Do you think it was aimed for that or somebody just getting rid of his load maybe just to?
What the bomb? No, they all said at the time they were sure it was the workshop they were aiming for.