Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Precious journa of being stuck of livelihoods lo future holiday h ITZ SPIRIT
WITH a million pages of people’s diaries, the Ma s s O b s e r v a t i o n Archive contains an unparalleled snapshot of history.
Author Becky Brown scoured the archive, largely written during the Second World War, and found stories eerily familiar to us now, as we live through the pandemic.
These exclusive extracts from Becky’s new book Blitz Spirit reveal frustration at being stuck inside, dismay at others not following mask rules and jobs being lost...
My father is very facetious during the raids. The longer they go on the higher his spirits appear to rise.
He rushes to the door in the hope of seeing a dog fight, rushes back and makes endless cups of tea, tells jokes and even comes up behind you and pretends to be a whistling bomb!
It amuses me to see how differently my people react. Mother keeps very quiet and does not appear at all frightened, but gets annoyed with him when he dashes about. We remark on this and she says she thinks they will be forced to get “an air-raid divorce”!
F, actress, London, 25/8/40
Raid at about 11.30 for about an hour. I was in the street when the warning went, shopping, about ¼-mile from the house; it’s the first time I’ve been caught away from home! I was interested to see the shop shutters going up and the people running, so I didn’t hurry.
It struck me as extraordinary that some people ran as though the devil were at their heels – I saw a woman very nearly run over by a car in her blind rush and another was panting as though she would burst and kept gasping “I can’t run any more, I mustn’t run,” still running – while others sauntered along in the most leisurely way, finishing their shopping, perhaps, before moving; a group of old women actually stood talking in the middle of the street, perfectly unmoved by the hustle and agitation round them.
F, widowed housewife,
London, 30/8/40
It’s astonishing too how one takes the most astounding piece of news in one’s stride now, as it were, as much that would in normal times have supplied us with a year’s sensations, we swallow in a week, without great comment.
F, housewife, Newcastle, 14/10/40
During the morning – the conversation turned on holidays – once when someone picked up an illustrated guide to Scarbro’ and again when someone said: “It will be grand when we can get back to normal again and have a real good holiday again”.
M, power
KEEP CALM Cuppa after a V1 attack at Waterloo, South London, in June 1944 loom turner, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, 10/11/40
Today, in spite of the cold – we are absolutely frozen up – felt springlike & thought of new clothes for spring. I suppose we shal l hav e to make do with a lot this coming year. P e r s o n a l l y, I’m going to en joy my s e l f to the utmost of my capacity. this cloister-lily ditchwater. No exciteme I think the t better time tha
The threat of in again. It seems are utterly un terrors and mis lie before us.
All we have b must “stay put perfunctory dir repeated since I know. I have
What happens when people’s livelihood disappears overnight? CIVIL SERVANT ON THE EFFECTS OF BEING AT WAR ON THE ECONOMY
Another week started, another 168 hours without the slightest appreciation EVACUATION OFFICE CLERK ON THE SENSE OF MARKING TIME IN A CRISIS
been told is that we t” – and even that rection has not been September, so far as n’t any idea what I party happened to hit the same evening as a bunch of RAF celebrating someone’s second stripe. So we took the carpets up & danced.
A nice party. Ever yone was drinking beer, f or reasons of economy. The club had a very wartime appearance, what with that and the uniforms, including stray ARP overalls, women in trousers & so on. Also much fuller than it would have been in peacetime.
Going out at night has quite got back to normal now. The amount A gang of us went down to the of blitz we expect to get these days squash club last night. isn’t even worth lugging one’s tin for.someplayedsquashfirstthenhatalong
Signs of revolt yesterday among the the others joined them in the bar. F, ambulance driver, younger married women, half- Played darts and ping-pong. Our London, 6/3/41 ought to do – if anything – if I hear the church bells ringing.
F, retired teacher, Great Missenden, Bucks, 1/2/41
Another week started, another 168 aimless hours passed without the slightest sense of construction and appreciation. “What is my life – I am tied down, my education has been stopped at the most criticle [sic] age of my life, what capacities have I to construct things and do things?” I asked myself.
M, evacuation office clerk, Barnstaple, Devon, 9/2/41
humorous half-serious, against housewifery as a life’s occupation – “I’ve been an unpaid servant long enough,” says Hodge, “I’m not going back to that after the war.”
Others agree enthusiastically. They find the house gets run well enough in the int er val s between ambulance work, so why should it ever be allowed to take up all the time?
F, ambulance driver,
London, 22/2/41
ALL SET Hairdos in bomb shelter
SAFE Couple relax with tea in shelter
All the propaganda recently about gas & gas masks doesn’t seem to have had much effect. I was down-town for an hour this morning and during that time saw one woman carrying a mask. F, civil servant, Welfare Office, Belfast, 2/4/41
Two unconsidered aspects of the blitz: milkmen bereft of customers, and doctors whose patients have gone. What happens when people’s livelihood disappears overnight like this?
F, civil servant, Welfare
Office, Belfast, 1/5/41
Caught the 12.15 train home.
When I arrived an acute attack of depression descended on me.
I think it is the thought of an invasion cutting me off from about three people that I am really fond of. The thought of anything happening to any one of them gives me a horrible feeling.
F, actress, London, 25/5/41