Wartime Humour

This story has been transcribed and published by Mark Jeffers, with permission from the author.

One day my cousin, who was only a few years older than me, made me laugh. My Aunt Gerdy, who was a very big woman, and her family used to go up to the shelter at the nursery school at the top of Utility Street [Belfast] during an air raid. The siren went off this day and my Aunt was taking a long time inside the house. My cousin Bobby was shouting at her “Mother, for goodness sake would you hurry up!” She was so big she couldn’t really rush. She says “For God’s sake Bobby would you hold on, I’m looking for my false teeth”. “Mother,” he says, “It’s not bread they’re dropping, its bombs!”

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