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I have lived in Bridport since I was six years old 鈥� I am now 86. My father Albert Hanger ran the dairy in South Street and I lived there until I was married in December 1939. I had been engaged for a year and when my fiance and I realised war was inevitable we decided to get married. I then moved to my husband鈥檚 drapery shop in the town. It sold women鈥檚 clothing. In 1940 my husband was called up. He was enlisted in the Royal Army Ordnance Corp in which he served throughout the war.
I then had to run the shop but had very little experience. Luckily my father-in-law had a shop in Dorchester and he would give me advice and make sure that everything was alright. We had six staff 鈥� all women in their 50s 鈥� and I lived over the shop. A woman friend who had two children came to live with me. It was nice to have the company. In 1941 I had a child of my own - a daughter.
The shop provided all the basic clothing. In those days you might have the money to purchase clothes but without sufficient coupons you couldn鈥檛 buy them. We deposited the coupons in the bank and then they were 鈥減aid鈥� to the clothes manufacturers to get new stock. This system - using coupons as money - limited the amount of stock you could carry.
But clothes fashions didn鈥檛 really change. For instance, I bought two coats at the beginning of the war and they had to last. Wages were low 鈥� if you earned L2.50 a week you were lucky 鈥� so most people were hard up and would buy clothes only when they had to.
Life was simple. There was very little to do or spend money on. We went for long walks with our children. Life was very ordinary and you appreciated the simple things.
We just accepted every day as it came. We were never short of food but could heat only one room in the large flat, so we spent most of the time in the kitchen. Our car 鈥� an Austin 鈥� was commandeered by the district nurses. We never saw it again and I can鈥檛 remember whether we were paid anything for it.
The town was bombed one day. A friend and I were walking in the town but we managed to get back to the shop. The blast from one of the bombs blew out our shop windows but we counted ourselves lucky. I saw a woman dead on the pavement and across the road a man died after the blast from one of the bombs had blown him up a chimney.
Our shop windows were then boarded up for the rest of the war. There was only a small area left for glass but I was quite happy with that because I then didn鈥檛 have the job of cleaning those large windows.
In 1945, the American troops who had been stationed around the town for some time started to move out. Tanks and lorries streamed through the town for many hours and then, two days later, we heard the invasion of Europe had begun. The end of the war had definitely come closer.

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