Rod Geddes of Aldourie describes the depressing effect of bad news

Ah well, there wasn't a lot of excitement in those years actually. No, because everybody was in the doldrums. They didn't know what way the war was going to go or anything like that, and no matter where you went, I always went to my grandmother's and my grandfather's for a holiday and they'd a wireless. And of course I always had to be kept quiet at the, when the wireless was on, when the news was on 'cause I had an uncle who was a prisoner of war at the time and really, it depressed all the family, the like of that.