Eh, was the library still open there when you guys were at school?
Niamh:
Yeah.
Chloe:
Yeah.
Interviewer:
Did you go in there?
Niamh:
I think I've been in a few times with the school but not on my own.
Chloe:
I don't think I've ever been in it, ever. My whole-- well maybe my mum would have took me but I used to always do those, um, like, roller coaster things that you used to do, at the [place name] library, and you used to have to-- it was like a seven week book challenge or something and my mum used to take us to read the book every week and you had to finish it and then you had to, like, identify all these little things throughout-- 'Cause it was different themes every year. So there used to be, like, alien ones or whatever. I always remember my favourite book, it was, like, Michael Morpurgo 'Out of the Ashes' or something like that.
Older speakers
Duncan:
Of course there wasn't so many-- You see, you've got to remember there was war-- there was still fairly stringent war restrictions and there was-- At that time the people-- the country was recovering from war when we were born in 1940, you see?
Anna:
40, you see?
Duncan:
And there was still rationing when we were young.
Anna:
Mhm.
Duncan:
And so we were brought up with severe restrictions really.
Anna:
Mhm.
Duncan:
You couldna buy bananas, and you couldna buy sweeties or athing when we were young.
Anna:
But I mean, hasn't done-- hasn't done us any harm.
Duncan:
And you couldna buy-- there was no such thing as potato crisps or--
Anna:
Oh no.
Duncan:
or cans of coke or nothing. You had nothing of that kind.
Anna:
No no no no no. We--
Interviewer:
It'd be better for your waistline-- it'd be better for me if there was none of that.
Duncan:
Well no, there was nothing there-- there was just-- there was-- you couldn't buy anything 'cause you couldn't-- it wasn't available.
Anna:
No.
Duncan:
All the money, all the government's money was spent on-- on fighting a war.
