Remembrance day special: Interview with my Grandma

(Grandma and I)

This Remembrance Day, I wished to truly enrich myself in the history of the war; how so many people put their own lives on the line, for the lives of so many others. Although I loved studying history at school, let us just say the subject did not love me back. I was thinking of ways in which I could discover more about this unprecedented time in history. My Grandma, named Morag Grieve, was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. She was only a mere toddler when the war commenced, therefore I felt this interview was refreshing (from my point of view) to have an insight of a child at this time.

Without further a do, here is her story as a young child, in Scotland and her childhood growing up in World War Two.

Please can you tell a bit about yourself- your name and when you were born?

My name is Morag Grieve, I was born in April 1939 and I am now 83 years old.

Did you grow up with your parents or a carer? Did you still live in your family home whilst the war was going on?

I lived with my grandmother because my mother was already dead, and my father did not want my grandmother and I living in Glasgow, whilst Glasgow was getting bombed.

He [her father] bought a caravan and he put the caravan down the Clyde coast, in a place called Largs, around an hour away from Glasgow and so my grandmother and I stayed in Largs for a few years while the war was on. My father used to come down every weekend. So while Glasgow was getting bombed, I was in and out paddling in the sea and things like that.

It wasn’t in a caravan site because it was 80 years ago and they didn’t have caravan sites in those days. He spoke to a farmer down there and he paid the farmer so much, he allowed us to keep the caravan on the field.

What was life like in Largs?

My grandmother used to take me up to the farm to see the cows get milked. We would go a walk to the farm. She used to take me out a walk. There was a local shop, quite a long walk away. It was out in the country, and we would and go get some shopping.

Did you notice if your grandmother seemed scared or frightened of the war?

"Oh no no you can’t do that" anything were to happen to me, to be honest. Like:

"Oh no no you can’t do that"and

"You can’t go there"

Things like that. As I was so young, I didn’t really know what was going on.

When did you move back to Glasgow?

After a few years, my father decided it was a bit safer if we moved back to Glasgow. It was still during the war.

Do you remember when the sirens would go off?

I do remember, when the sirens went, we had an air raid shelter in the garden; a brick air raid shelter. We used to go in there. Looking back it, was silly as that could have been bombed like the house. Obviously, I was really young so I didn’t understand the implications of it all.

Did you ever feel confused about what was going on? Your home town getting bombed etc?

No, I was so young so I didn’t really understand, but I can still picture all the rubble and everything. However, one day, my father came in from work and said a land mine had landed and destroyed the next block of houses. My grandmother said that we must go round and see that. I remember her taking me round and all it was was a pile of rubble, where all these houses were before.

What do you think your most vivid memories were from the war times (39-45)?

I do remember once being in the shelter with her [Morag's grandmother] in the garden, and I had this push along horse, this toy dog on wheels, called Dominio. I always remember I was sitting there in the shelter when the bombs were falling, I opened the door and ran out and...

I said"I’ve got to go get dominio out the house in case he gets bombed!"

She came running after me because I shouldn’t have opened the shelter door and gone out, I guess that’s just how you think as a young child.

I remember we had ration books. When you went in shops, you would have only so many vouchers just to buy your butter and things. Everything was rationed and you were only allowed a certain amount of things.

Did your father or any of your family fight in the war?

My father didn’t have to go to the war. They were calling up young men to go to the war, but a lot of people I knew at the time, all their fathers were fighting in the war. The only reason my father didn’t get called up to fight in the war to fight against Germany, was because he was a single parent. They did not class my grandmother as a parent or guardian. He was allowed to stay at home, and all men his age were away and some of his friends were killed fighting. Although I had an uncle, who lived in Glasgow, he was a minister, so they didn’t take him to the war because he had a duty to his church.

Were you aware that something was going on at the time?

Well, I wasn’t really scared because I didn’t really understand the war. But when I look back at it, it was a nice childhood I had. I lived in a caravan on a farmers field; the sea was at the bottom of the road so we would go down to the sea and things like that. I’d go for a paddle in the sea etc and all those poor people in Glasgow, the children getting bombed and killed. I was lucky.

Did your friends feel sad about the loss of their fathers?

No, I don’t think they realised, I don’t think you do as a 4 or 5 year old. Same with my mother being dead, you know. I remember my grandmother telling me one day,

She said “We are going to the cemetery."

I said “Why are we going to the cemetery for?” I knew what cemetery meant, so I must have been a certain age.

She said “To visit my husband’s grave.”

I said “Your husband’s grave? How can you visit your husband’s grave if you’re married to daddy?”

They let me call my grandmother 'mum'.

But she said “I’m not your mummy.”

“You’re not my mummy? Well, where is she?” I said. I remember looking around for her. She then told me she died a long time ago. I hardly knew how to react and the next thing I said was

“Oh, oh really?... There’s an ice cream shop over there, can I get one?” and that was it. It didn’t register, because she had always been there since the day I was conscious of what was going on, I never really thought anything about it until I was older.

Did you house in Glasgow get damaged from the war?

No, it didn’t get bombed, we were lucky. It was just the hit of the draw because you didn’t know which houses were going to get bombed, they would just drop them. They were trying to hit all the ships on the Clyde side, that’s what they were after. I do remember seeing the devastation when my grandmother took me a walk.

What happened with your grandmother? When did she pass away? Did she act as a mother figure to you?

She was well in her 80’s when she died. I was a teenager, about 15 or 16 maybe. She was very good, because her husband died when she was about 40. She had four children and she bought them up all on her own. Then what happened, the last two children weren’t even married when my mother died. When my father phoned her up and told her that my mother had died, he was worried about what to do as I was only a day old,

She said “Don’t worry! I am moving back to Scotland to help with the baby.”

What do you think is the main importance of Remembrance Day?

Because I was young, I was not aware of how many people around me had been killed, you hear it, but you don’t take it in. You don’t realise the implications of it all, how serious it had been, people losing their fathers.

A lot of my friends fathers were taken to go to war, and a lot of them never came back as they were killed.

That is why they have this remembrance day, you see the pictures of some of them on remembrance day; they were only quite young, some of the men.

They need to be remembered.