I am guessing at the year the photograph was taken and I would say 1947-48, you will see that William and I are wearing army jackets which was common at that time.  

When William Sorbie and I were at school our teacher used to get us to quote the poem "The Twa Corbies," and it was so near to our name that some of the class used to say, when the teacher was not listening " The Twa Sorbie's" (The Two Sorbie's).

I went to one school Stonehouse Junior Secondary which was known as Townhead school, there were two annexes Camnethen Street, and Greenside School.  I started school 1940 and left in 1950, my main teacher was Kit Small, you will see her in John Young's second book on Stonehouse (page 2) which is dedicated to her, a wonderful teacher, I was friendly with her until she died in June 1999 at the age of 93. Kit served the community of Stonehouse as a teacher in three of our schools from 1926-1971.

The Taws or Strap.

Like all the other families with a set in bed we had a "Kist" which held all the family belongings (Kist is Scots for chest which was like the pirate type chests). The set in beds were large with a curtain across the open end, from memory the mattress sat on boards and it was about 3 feet in height with a deep board to the living room side to keep you from rolling out, the three solid sides or walls were papered as the living room. To get into the bed you had to stand on a chair, and over the bottom full length was a curtain, this covered all the family storage under the bed.

Talking about wallpaper - during the war wallpaper was almost unobtainable and the alternative was to paint the wall with Distemper which was the old equivalent to emulsion and using a sponge dipped in different colours, patterns could be produced, as a boy I had to do this as my father had ill health. I can clearly remember doing the red and blue patterns on a light coloured background.

 Water was a "Jawbox" a deep square sink with a brass cold tap (spicot)(spigot) - no hot water. During the war everyone had to black out the windows, and in our house we had three light weight framed covers that was held on by turn buttons fixed to the window frame.

Our radio was a work of art with bakelite slow motion drives, it ran on a large HT battery, a grid bias battery and an accumulator which I had to take down weekly to a garage to get charged up, the loud speaker was made of thin cardboard varnished, with this radio I remember listening to all the wartime programmes and Lord Haw Haw, from Germany.

I remember a story of two women talking about what they could receive on their “Wireless”, one lady said she could hear Athlone in Ireland, Lord Haw Haw etc, the other lady said I don’t get that, its is very poor with a lot of interference.The first lady said I know what’s wrong, its your Wullie I see him bringing the accumulator from the garage and he’s always swinging it round his head, the stations will be all mixed up.

Before we had electricity it was a gas mantle that hung above the fireplace high mantelpiece, how we managed to see beats me. The fire was also a work of art which my mother had to black lead frequently and light each morning, to this day I miss hob toast, a slice of bread held on a large fork against the hobs holding the fire, similarly an apple toasted.

When I went to see my grandfather he smoked thick black tobacco and with the smoke and the gas light it was like the smog. 

Frequently you could have a fall of soot down the lum (chimney). One day we had visitors having tea around the table in the middle of the living room when suddenly the soot rumbled down, we all finished up like the black and white minstrels.  I was a real expert at chimney cleaning in my teens done with brush and rods from the fireplace, which was covered with bags. Drying clothes was on a pulley in the middle of the living room,  when I say the living room that is the right word for it, families were lucky if they had another room.

Toilets were either outside or in our case two toilets in the entrance 'close' shared with 3 other families. Toilet paper was newspaper cut into squares, it left an imprint you know where! In the winter months the toilets could be frozen, or the walls were running with condensation, the only light was a torch.

The thing that makes me smile now living in a bungalow is that we accepted this as our life and we never complained.  Would the present generation accept that type of life?

PLAY

Children mainly spent their time during the summer down at the Public Park which in my time was a well managed public amenity, with the Chute (Slide) being the main attraction, the chute which is no longer there, was around 150 feet long running down the hillside. The boating pond also was a good attraction.

Stonehouse Park showing the 'big chute' and boating pond, taken around 1950. Note the River Avon and Linthaugh Bridge in the middle distance.

During the war most things were rationed, the only exceptions were bread and potatoes. Bread was rationed just after the war for a short time. Petrol was only available for essential use. 

A ration book was a must which allowed children to buy a quarter of sweets per month and normally barley sugar, empty shelves in the sweet shops. There was a cheese ration, and mothers had to go to the Government Food Office to obtain a small bottle of concentrated orange. Everything you bought had a utility look about it and women's skirt hem lines were made high to save material. 

We were fortunate in that my father had pigeons which we ate at times. Pigeon Stew and eggs are very tasty. A few times we had whale meat which was a bit oily, never had to eat horsemeat . Oranges and bananas were never tasted or seen. I can remember my first banana. I knew what they tasted like as my mother boiled turnip or parsnips until they were tasteless, then added banana essence, which was spread on our bread.

Wartime Ration Book

Railings were removed from house garden front walls to be made into tanks, Aluminium pans were collected by school children and were presented with a coloured cardboard medal - Gold, Silver etc. depending on the quantity. The children also collected rose hips to make syrup, they were uplifted by the authorities at School from memory.  

Old knitted woollen items were unpicked to knit into other items such as balaclava helmets to keep us warm and also sent to the troops. Carpet was also hard to come by and my mother like other mothers made rag rugs by cutting up old clothes into strips they were made into patterns of different colours. Recently I found my mothers hook which she pulled the cloth through the hessian bag base. The hook is now in the Hamilton Museum.

Sheets were repaired until the could not hold together and at that stage made into bandages. Some ladies made nightdresses from white flour bags or if the could lay hands on parachute material that was ideal.

There was little choice in soap - Persil soap flakes, Oxydol and Lifebuoy soap - a tin of cake toothpaste. 

The children then were healthier than they are now and we did recycle the little we had.  

The Home Guard (volunteers unpaid) consisted of mainly men who were not called up for service due to their age being under 18. I am not sure of the upper limit but think it was 45. Also miners and others who were in essential work and had the time. They were there to guard the town and country side from an attack by the Germans and took part in limited practices. Some had WW1 experience. For a short while after Dunkirk in 1940 they had no rifles to drill with, only wooden ones. Sometimes they had to make do with brush shafts.

All the roads coming into Stonehouse and all towns had large concrete obstacles circular about 6 feet in diameter and about 4 feet wide, sitting ready to be rolled in place and turned on their flat side. The Home Guard would have been responsible for getting a tractor or something to get these obstacles in position to block the road. The ideal place was a bridge. They did have some liaison with the Observation Corps spotting planes and some I am sure they would be sent to Clydebank, Glasgow to help out in the bombing blitz. 

In a way they were very much like the 'Volkstrom' that marched out to meet the Russians when they surrounded Berlin - old men.