Auntie Gee WWII paxton interview Trimmed

The transcription is a conversation between family members discussing experiences related to World War II. Topics covered include being in London, evacuation to Canada, food rationing, types of drinks allowed, blackout procedures, family members in the war, clothing coupons, gas mask drills, and bombing incidents in Coventry. Personal anecdotes and memories are shared, highlighting the impact of the war on their lives. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning Jason. Good morning Paxton. How are you? I'm feeling very well thank you. Right. We were just in the lift in the hotel because we're in London and a couple got in and Paxton said, well we're just going for breakfast and then we're going to have a call with my auntie about World War II. And they said, okay then. Okay. And just so you know, there is about 11 questions on the iPad. So Paxton, are you okay by the way? We should say hello. And are you okay? Are you happy to do this? John's gone to Sainsbury's. It shouldn't be too long. So, but I think I'll probably be able to answer all the questions anyway. I think you'll be all right. Now wait a minute, wait a minute. I want to tell Auntie Gee first that yesterday when we were having dinner, I said to Paxton, right, we should prepare the questions for Auntie Gee. And he rattled these off and I think they're quite good questions, but there are 11 of them. So you might need to keep your answers short. I'm sitting down, James. You know I'm not used to talking much. I know, I know. So if it's okay with you, we're going to record this so that he can then turn it into a presentation later by typing it all out. Well, shall we get it started? Is that okay? Yes, that's great. Okay. Let's get it started. Let's get started. Okay, so question one. How old were you when the war ended and everyone celebrated? I was, um, 13. Thirteen? Thirteen, thirteen. I don't like you. That's not much older than you, Paxton. I know. Paxton, I was seven when the war started. Okay, so that is seven when the war started. And he was on for six years. So I was 13 when he finished. Okay. Wow. Okay, question two. Did you get evacuated? No, Uncle Ron and I were going to be evacuated to Canada. What? Canada? Yeah, to Canada. Oh, then you could see the pirate ship. But we went to the hospital in Coventry and we all had to be examined to see if we were healthy enough to go. Well, we were, but then one of the ships that went, it got torpedoed. Torpedoed? Torpedoed on the way to Canada. But did you hear that? Yes, wow. Wildly. So my mum wouldn't let us go. She took us out of the, you know, she said, oh, I'm not going to have the risk of going in case it happens again. So we never went to, it was never evacuated. Well, that's lucky. Yes, it was lucky, wasn't it? But then there was a lot of children came from London to Coventry because, I mean, we were bombed, but that didn't happen at the time they came. And they've never seen any lambs or cows. Oh, because they didn't have any in London, then, in any fields. And they wanted to know what these little woolly animals were. Wow, that's a pretty good answer. Okay, question three. What type of foods did you have in the war? What type of? Foods. Food, oh, well, we had the normal food, but it was rationed. I know it was rationed, I've learned about that. And we only had, every month we had 12 ounces, I don't know what that is in metric or whatever it is, chocolate, about three quarters of a pound it was of sweets. What? Yeah, that's all we were allowed to have. That's quite a little bag. Okay. And we were allowed to have one egg a week. One egg! Papa, did you hear that? They were only allowed to have one egg a week. Wow, that's not much, is it? Yes! And we only had so many ounces, I can't remember how many, of butter or margarine. And bread wasn't rationed, you could always get bread, but the cakes were horrible. We used to have school and go to a cake shop on the way home, and there used to be some buns there, just ordinary buns, but the cream looked like inside, it looked like shaving cream. I don't know what it was made of actually, but we used to go to this shop and get one bun each and we thought they were lovely. Yeah, I don't blame you. Right, let's move on, shall we? We'll move on. So question four, what kind of drinks were you allowed? Well, there was plenty of water. Plenty of water is good, very good. We used to, if somebody had a young baby, they used to get orange juice, special orange juice for them. Wow. We never got it, we used to have the little bottles of milk at school, we allowed one of those a day. Very small bottle it was, I don't know how much it was, but you could get, I think you could get Ribena and things like that. Oh, Ribena, that's nice. Didn't have much at all, Paxton. Okay, this one is a good one. Did you see a doodle bug go past? No, I didn't. I think they did in London, but I didn't. Oh good, because if you didn't see one, that means it didn't go near your house, which is good. Yes. You are very lucky, well done, Aunty Gay. Do I get ten out of ten? I think you get, oh, you can get more than that. Oh yes, sorry about that. Okay, so, question six. Did you see any German planes? No, I didn't. I think Uncle John did. He saw one flying over, and it was very low, but I didn't see any, Paxton. Okay, okay, okay, question seven. What was it like being in the blackout? Oh, it was alright, because you see, when I was only young, I was only seven, and as I say, I was thirteen when the war ended, and we had heavy blackout curtains, and we used to, my mum used to have to draw them at a certain time, and they used to have air raid wardens going round. Air raid wardens? Air raid wardens, and my dad, your grandad, well, great grandad, he was an air raid warden, and they used to have to go round the street, and to see that everybody had got their curtain blackout curtains drawn, and if they didn't, they used to knock the door, and they used to say, we can see a light, draw your curtains. Well, now, I think they'd struggle with our house, wouldn't they, because Papa's always leaving the curtains open. Okay, so, now this one I don't think is going to be true, but, but, you never know. Were any members of your family fighting in the war? Um, yes, I had a cousin, he was in the Navy. Wow! I thought that, I thought no one would be doing that, but, yeah, wow. Yeah, well, he was fighting in the war, and he was killed near the end of the war, and he was only eighteen. Oh, oh, boy. Yeah, that was my, that was my dad's brother's son, and his name was Roy. Wow, well. That was sad, that one, wasn't it? Yeah, I don't blame you for that one. Okay, question nine. What kind of clothes did you have to wear in the war? Oh, we didn't have a school uniform, we just, because all our clothes, we used to have coupons for clothes, they were, it was a book with coupons in it, and you were allowed so many coupons. A book with coupons in it. Coupons. I thought you said coupons. No, coupons. Do you know what a coupon is? You probably don't know what a coupon is. No, I don't. No, well, it's, um, if, if you was tall like I was, and I took size six in shoes when I was older, they used to give you extra coupons. A coupon's like a stamp. It looks like, you know, like a stamp that you stick on an envelope? Uh-huh. Well, a coupon would look like that. Wow. It's about as big as that. I can't remember exactly how many were allowed, but we used to, you know, I, you couldn't get nice dresses and nice clothes, and you used to, I used to make some skirts out of blackout material. Wow. Okay, question ten. How many times did you have to wear your gas mask? Oh, you used to have to take your gas mask to school with you every day. Yeah, my teacher told me that you have to take it with you everywhere you go. Everywhere you went. Just in case any poisons come and get you. So, so we used to have to go to school with our gas mask, in our gas mask case, and when we got to school, certain times of the day, the teacher used to say you will now have gas mask practice. And we used to have to take our gas mask out of the case and put it on. And it sounds like it, and how tight was it? Did it feel weird or something? Well, it was alright, but what she used to do, she used to give you, and you have, she used to say now put that piece of cardboard under the bottom of your mask and you used to have to breathe in and it used to stick to the end of your mask when you breathed in. That was to see if you could breathe alright with your gas mask on. Wow. Okay, this is the last question. Did you see anything on fire? Oh, well, yes. You know, I mean cotton tree was bombed very badly. It was burnt down and it's just a shower, it's still there today. Wait, he just said crystal fire on that. Sorry, no don't worry. Sorry, we just got a text message that just came in at the same time. Oh yeah, that's alright Jason. Can you start that again because it made the audio go quiet for a minute. So did you see anything on fire? And you started to tell us about Coventry. Oh, you there? Yeah, what was that Jason? You were starting to tell us about Coventry. Could you start that again and things being on fire? Oh yeah, about, well all the centre of Coventry was all bombed and burnt and I forget how many people died in the houses. My grandma, who was your great-grandma, was in hospital at the time of this bombing. What? She broke her arm so she'd gone in hospital but they had to be moved out of the hospital to certain places. Coventry was very badly bombed. When we went on holiday after the war, Uncle John and I, and he went to only like real places very near and he used to tell them it came from Coventry. They thought we were little war orphans. He used to say Coventry, all these children were in Coventry because it was bombed very badly. But we were alright where we lived. The only thing is we had a piece of shrapnel fall in front of our gate at the front of the house and I think my father still had it in his garage. Well, Aunty Mandy was looking for this piece of shrapnel. She wanted to know who had it and I said, well I don't know who had it. I said perhaps Tony had it, your grandad. But anyway, whether they found it, perhaps, I don't know. It was a big piece of shrapnel. You've touched it, haven't you perhaps? Yeah, well, OK. Tell Aunty Gail about the shrapnel. So, when the war was happening, a bomb was flying over and then a piece of metal just scrapped out of it and then it landed somewhere in his garden and then he found it and then he showed me and it was like, it was like metal. Yeah, it was like as heavy as a weight. Well, we'll send you a picture of it. It's quite a big chunk. Have you got it? Did your dad have it? Yeah, Dad's got it and I had never seen it before. I don't remember seeing it before. It looks like a bit of rusty old... I think Ron gave it to Dad at some point. I don't know when, but... Yeah, I know Mandy was after it or something. I don't know whether she wanted it for Sam or... because she said, did you have it? I said, no, I bloody well did. I thought, what are you asking me that for? It had nothing to do with you. Okay. Well, that was the last question. So, what do you say? Is that the last question? Yeah, that was question 11. What do you say? Oh, did I do alright, Paxton? You did pretty well. Oh, thank you very much. That was quite interesting, wasn't it? Yeah. Right, so thanks for joining us and answering all of these questions and we'll hope to see you again very soon, I hope. Yes, we hope to see you very soon, Paxton.