Archive (1372 life histories found)
'We children didn't understand the danger and looked on it as a great adventure.'
I remember the night of the big blitz in Belfast. We could hear the terrible sound of the sirens telling us that the German bombers were overhead. Although there were shelters in the street,very few people used them. My mother insisted we all…
'I thought I was the star of the silver screen and dreamed my dreams of becoming a famous film star.'
Our house was always full of people at weekends. My granny had four sisters,mother,Maggie,Rachel and Lucy who all lived locally and congregated in gran's to catch up with the local gossip. The night usually ended with a sing song,as everyone in the…
'I had to suffer the comb biting into my scalp until I thought it would bleed. 'better than getting nits' she would say.'
Our house was a small terrace house,two up and two down with a tiny garden at the front. We had no hot running water or bathroom. Friday night was bath night. My mum and grandmother carried the big tin bath from the back yard into the livingroom…
'I can honestly say my grandmother was the most important influence in my life.'
Thus started one of the happiest periods of my childhood years. My father was away with the RAFR. My mother took a job in a munitions factory,like so many other women at that time to help the war effort. My aunt worked in a large city centre…
Tags: grandmother, munitions factory, RAF, war
'One of my first memories was sitting on the floor in the living room with the mice running over my legs.'
My name is Norma Stewart McCullough. I was born on 26th September 1937. For the first ten years of my life I moved around quite a bit. The house I was born in was in Joanmount Crescent on the Ballysillan Road,where I stayed until my father joined…
Tags: father, grandmother, house, mice and rats, mother, RAF
'A lesson for life: Never point a gun or rifle at anybody, especially yourself, unless you mean it.'
There ends a short version of my life. There are many things that I remember. My oldest brother,my uncle Franz,whom I last saw in the concentration camp,both of them perishing in the gas chamber? (assumption). No records were available after the war.…
'And with the grandchildren arriving thick and fast, life became quite hectic at times'
Life changed completely after my retirement. I loved travel,gardening,and handloom weaving,Linda was not a particularly good traveller,but we managed a couple of trips together to Germany. She did enjoy it. We travelled to our various daughters in…
'It was a godsend for me, no worries about delivery or quality, my headaches were gone, literally'
About 1976 there was a bad flooding of the mill. A lot of destruction,and it never really recovered from it. As the girls had finished school,I looked for another job. They were looking for a technician at the Art College in Belfast,(part of the…
'Next were the twins, Julia and Heather, in October next year. Totally unexpected. Even the doctor was surprised!'
In 1956 we came to Northern Ireland where I took a job at the Spamount woollen mills,Spamount,Castlederg. This was a large mill,manufacturing all sorts of cloth,woollen,worsteds,and also a limited amount of travelling rugs. All the foremen's houses…
Tags: bank loan, daughters, house, Northern Ireland
'Needless to say, one of them was to be my wife, eventually'
So I went back to the Isle of Man,the same lodgings with a newer bike,and more money. After a while,they decided to branch out,to include manufacture of yarn. I was sent to Galashiels on a short course on carding and spinning,and after return to…
Tags: Dance, date, first house, marriage, wife