Transcript for: her husband and the work she did during the war
Interviewee: Edna Ryan
Subject: Almondbury High School
Can you tell us about your husband’s experiences?Well he was in the air force and in Egypt for three years. I didn’t see him for three years and by the time he came home it was practically over.
Did he have a good time? Did he enjoy the air force?
He seemed to do. They didn’t all have it rough, it was in a few places. He moved about.
So he saw quite a lot?
Yes, for those three years I never saw him at all because he was out there.
Did you hear from them in those three years?
Oh yes he used to write and I used to write back.
How did that feel knowing that he was over there and you were here with a baby?
Well I was busy working at ICI.
You didn’t really have time to think about it.
I used to take my little boy to my father’s wife, my mother died and it was his second wife, she used to look after him. I used to take him in the morning and pick him up at night; they just lived across from ICI.
Did you enjoy your time at ICI?
Yes we had fun besides it being rough. It was an experience mixing cement. They used to send me down to the lab by the fire station for a mouse in a little wire cage. They used to put them in the baths and they had to be in a couple of hours because the brickies could go in the baths then, if the mouse didn’t die. There was no gassing then. I used to be terrified carrying this mouse.