What was it like in a bomb shelter?
Evelyn: Dark,
damp and dismal! We seldom went outside. Wee lived in a tenement
just like they are here right on Froghall Avenue and all the
neighbours used to come downstairs and shelter in our lobby
and we had to keep all the windows blacked out for lights
and used to sit in the lobby. If you wanted to go to the toilet,
used to get a little wee paraffin lamp and the windows were
left open for the blast (you know, if there was any bombs)
and the light always blew out and I was always crying coz
I was frightened of the dark!
Sheila: We
had a big one out in the backyard in Park Rd, a big granite
one. We never used it. Everybody went under the stairs –there
was a place under the stairs and everybody went under there
instead of going out to the shelter – didna like the
shelter, you had to go out yer house and along the green to
the backyard and nobody used it. Did
you grow vegetables in your garden?
Sheila:Those
with gardens did. Most of them grew vegetables – tatties,
carrots, neeps and things like that.
Evelyn:We
didn’t. My father was a trawl fisherman so he wasn’t
home during the war he was always sailing up to Iceland
and places like that. My mother she had too many children
to look after to grow vegetables. My brother was the oldest,
he was captured at Dunkirk and kept in a prisoner of war
camp for the whole of the war and never got home till after
the war. We didn’t see him from the time he was 18
till he was 24 – 26years old
Were a lot of women involved
in the war?
Sheila:Yes
a lot of women were employed in munitions down at Henderson’s
on King Street. And some were in the land army or the ATS.
Did you understand what was happening
during the war?
Sheila:We
had a rough idea. We were just children ourselves. I didn’t
think we realised what was actually going on. You were frightened
during the bombing. You were. But there was no television
like there are today, just newspapers. When you wee just
5 or 6 you weren’t going to read newspapers, not at
that age. Nowadays yer getting all your information off
the television, we didn’t have that. Had the radio,
but things were kept from you. You didn’t realise
all the things that were going on. The only thing we realised
after the war was when the troops went into Belsen and places
like that. You saw really what happened. That never leaves
yer memory when you see what you saw. That was on what you
call cinema. We just called it pictures, news. You were
too busy playing children’s games and things like
that to worry about it too much.
What was the worst part of the
war?
Sheila: When
the bombing was severe. That would be the worst part of
it.
Evelyn: Yes,
that would be the worst part. When you’re sitting
in the dark – you weren’t allowed any lights
and you were frightened when you heard the bombs falling.
You heard the bangs – they were close to you and next
morning when you went out and you saw all the damage that
had been done that frightened you.
Sheila:Yer
school was all blacked out. Big black curtains. The curtains
had to be drawn before a light was switched on.
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Projects 
Projects
. WWII Timeline . Wifies
at War index 
