Life During Wartime

By Libby Regan

“Don’t be frightened. It's when the noise stops is when you have to worry, which means you were the target.”

Libby: My grandmother has been all over the world. She was born in Scotland during World War II, she was raised in Australia, and raised her own children in Minnesota. This past Thanksgiving, I got to talk to her about her childhood during the war in Scotland and how it affected her outlook on life today.

Libby: Yeah, well, let’s . . . what was your early childhood in Scotland like?

Grandmother: Well, it just so happened that I was born in 1941, ah, during the start of the war between Germany and Britain, and the Germans created these flying bombs that went from Europe, I was told—because they did frighten, you know, I remember the loud noise, I was frightened—I was told, don't be frightened. It's when the noise stops is when you have to worry, which means you were the target. You know, it's just different if you're a child. And of course I had my mother and father, and I did notice that my mother cried a lot and that she listened to the BBC, and every night we had to listen to Churchill. Then we had rationing, and we'd got cans, and my mother used to divide up the eggs among the neighborhood. The neighbors, some of them, we had vegetable gardens, we all shared the vegetables and everything, so we sort of got through it, you know? My mother never forgot that… and I can understand. And, um . . . but my brother and I were just over it very quickly. And because we were rural, we would spend our days that we weren’t in school, tadpoling, fishing, and doing such fun things. We did have, I thought, all in all, really a happy time after the war, before we left. I’ve looked at my life very positively. And I’ve looked at it, if somebody said, “describe your life,” I would say that it’s been a great adventure, I’ve met marvelous people, I have my marvelous grandchildren . . . that I’ve really never regretted anything. So I have to say at Scotland, a little fishing village with a couple of dogs, um . . . looks good to me, but then, so does Point Reyes in California, you know what I’m saying? So, yeah—

Libby: You’re a citizen of the worlds.

Grandmother: I sort of feel a bit like that. And everywhere we’ve gone, people have been so . . . nice, and friendly, and I don’t have any regrets.