Individual results

Interviewee: Betty Daniel

Track 1
Born Park Gate Road, Coventry. Mother terrified about birth - didn't know what would happen. House as child had a thatched roof - remembers builders when she was 3 years old. School - St. Luke's Church, then Holbrook Lane, then Hen Lane School.

Track 2
Left school before 14 years old, then secretarial college (wanted to be a hairdresser). Job as secretary. Couldn't remember shorthand doing minutes of a meeting. Child - open fireplace in house - bacon hanging up. Washing outside with dolly tub. Finger hurt.

Track 3
Father was a foreman at the Daimler (fitter) - through war. Aged 11 years old when the war started. Sunday walk in best clothes through Corley. Thought Germans would drop gas like WW1. Coastal bombing at first. Given gas masks at school.

Track 4
Big air raid shelter for whole school. "Teacher in class was law" - would get the cane if they talked or answered back. Had to sit properly or "there would be a dig in your back". Geography was her favourite subject. Also liked PE. Wanted to be a hairdresser.

Track 5
Wanted to be a hairdresser - not a shorthand typist (not good at spelling). Ten people living at home - "we used to sleep under the table" (safer). Shelter in garden (two-thirds underground).

Track 6
Shelter seated twelve people. November 'Blitz' - incendary bombs - "all the big factories" (including Daimler) - men counted bombs (out of each six dropped at a time). "Didn't go to school the next morning" (after Blitz).

Track 7
Sirens could be heard from Birmingham (before the Coventry siren). April 'Blitz'. Food - didn't go short. Pigs for bacon. Swopped tea coupons for butter tokens. School dinners came in during the war. Meat rationed - "black market probably!". Lard or dripping and salt.

Track 8
Bread and jam, etc. Clothes - coupons - cut down dress from someone else - "Had a best dress" etc. Didn't miss what she wasn't used to. Long hours at work. Boyfriend (husband now) at Alfred Herberts. "Everyone could knit and sew" (even men).

Track 9
Stockings she knitted, etc - balaclava helmets went to forces. American base - dances at Herberts - jive. Italian POW's (Prisoners of War) built roads. Americans had chewing gum.

Track 10
Dances - Dad told her to be back for 9 o'clock. Never saw black people until American soldiers - white soldiers let out on a different night. Street party - Park Gate pub.

Track 11
After the war got married in 1950 but still had ration books. People grew food - not much tinned and none frozen. Excited by banana's after the war. "We were used to living on basic foods". Sweet rationing. Mother cooked on fires (stewpot hanging on fire).

Track 12
Washing done on dolly tubs when she got married (on Monday's). Not many clothes then to wash like now. Clothes worn throughout the week. "Saturday night was bath night". "We always had Sunday dinner". Made cakes with liquid parafin, etc.

Track 13
Cakes. Bread and dripping, or lard and salt. Aged 17 years after war - youth centre at Hen Lane School - liked sports and also went to dances there. Met husband at youth centre - married him aged 21 years. Husband also a "sports fanatic" (bike riding).

Track 14
Cycling - Aunt had a pub at Woburn Abbey. Cycle racing. Runs a scout group now. Stratford on Sunday afternoon then. Picnic at Corley rocks. "We had so little money…". Camping.

Track 15
Wedding - "horrible day…it rained and rained!". Reception at home - parsnip wine got people drunk. Wedding dress made by Auntie. Seven bridesmaids. Train to Newquay and Cornwall for honeymoon (every year since) - "not a lot of money to spend".

Track 16
Motorbike. Got new job at Self Changing Gears - didn't have to work on a Saturday (for six years). Job at Coventry Climax (more money) - until pregnant. Night job at Orchid and Locarno (bar work). Husband got job as a croupier.

Track 17
Husband - job near Twycross Zoo. Had twins later. Locarno - 1958, then Orchid ballroom in Hillfields (serving drinks). Told she was £5 short…

Track 18
…lad stole the money (and she would have lost £5 out of her wages if he hadn't have been caught). Son "cried and cried" after birth. Six year gap - more boys. Later triplet girls. Holiday's.

Track 19
Babies in carry cots. Holiday's. Seven children. "I think a big family is nice". Fishermen know them at Newquay. No seat belts then.

Track 20
People though she had a children's home on holiday! Change in Coventry - "not as nice" (because she can remember the old Coventry). Liked Owen Owens. Silver Cross pram - pushchair (for four children). Children sat and didn't move while she was shopping…

Track 21
…behaved themselves" (her children). Godiva procession - children sat on kerb. Pictures too expensive. Picnic in Coombe Abbey - paddling pool then. Twycross Zoo.

Track 22
Her children at school - "teachers were law"…"very bad" (now). Mothers didn't go out to work once. "Now the more you have the more you want". In scout group - husband bowls.

Track 23
Son canoes. Camp. Scout group. Doesn't want to join pensioner's group while still active. Has to be active until she watches TV in the evening.

Track 24
Wants to keep active. Loves gardening. Parents buried in Coventry - she and husband will stay here too. Shops in Coventry - can't see why you need to shop elsewhere. Doesn't like the canopy (over Godiva).

Track 25
Would like to see more flower beds in city centre. "Memorial Park not kept nice like it used to be". Packed lunches at one time in Memorial Park. Will stay in Coventry.

Track 26
Doesn't smoke or drink much. Save money for holiday's (with good scenery). Easter in Snowdonia (camping recently). Looks after neighbour's children.

Track 27
Change in Coventry - Asians in schools - "shops taken over by Asians". New houses on land - "not as nice as when there was a lot of fields". Shame they have to put up fences and use anti-vandal paint. New football stadium will be nearby.

Track 28
(short track)

Time: 81:12

Coventry Lives Oral History Project, date of birth: 1928