麻豆官网首页入口

This contribution was submitted by Viola Stevens to the People's War team in Wales and is added to the site with her permission.

We didn鈥檛 feel we went without anything in the war. I had a spinster aunt who didn鈥檛 spend much money on clothes. She鈥檇 come and visit my mother at our grocery shop in Skewen once a year and bring her clothing coupons. My mother would give her tea, or butter, or whatever she wanted in exchange. And so my sister, who was very fashion conscious鈥nd all of us used to make our own clothes鈥o my mother had extra coupons. You could also buy curtain material with coupons鈥ou could buy more curtain material than you could dress material. So we used to wear dresses made of curtain material鈥�.brocade, anything鈥e made our own clothes. It was amazing how we got by.

None of us knew anything different鈥e knew the war was on. At the end of the war we saw British Japanese prisoners of war coming back鈥hey were very, very thin, some had TB. They had more butter, more eggs in their rations. When you are a child you take things as they come because you can鈥檛 compare it with any other life. When the war started I thought 鈥淗ow exciting!鈥� But my sister knew a young man鈥e was a wireless operator, and it was his first duty on ship and he went down. He was only 19. When those things happen, close to the family, that鈥檚 when it hits you that it鈥檚 a very sad occasion. War is very hard.

At the end of the war I was having an English lesson 鈥� I鈥檇 left school at 14 鈥� but I was having an English lesson with a teacher from Neath County school. He was the brother of the novelist Gwyn Thomas鈥e was Vernon Thomas. And the announcement must have been while I was having the lesson, because he said: 鈥淭he war has ended鈥�. I think I said: 鈥淲hat do we do now?鈥� There were lots of celebrations 鈥� my sister, being older than me, obviously she went dancing and whatever. I was 15. We did have a street party afterwards, and the church bells were ringing. The whole time I was growing up during the war everything was silent鈥he church bells, and then the cars had their headlights on full! During the war they had to be dimmed, with a shroud over the top of the lights. But it was very difficult to acclimatise to the new life. It had to come gradually. I didn鈥檛 remember what it was like before the war鈥ut afterwards you just carried on and the soldiers kept coming back from the war and you just carried on with your life.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.