End of War Reaction

Interviewer: Do you remember the day the day that you learned that the war had ended? Do you remember your reaction when you heard that it was finally over?

It was a relief, a great relief, a great relief to me, so glad we'd won and that sort of thing. Of course, we did win you know, whatever you say , we won. Yes, it was a great relief to me. And I got very occupied of bringing up my children to, it was very, it took all my time. I had a very dull life, we had very little money.

Interviewer: You were in your early forties when the war ended?

That's right, yes.

Interviewer: Do you remember, do you remember the repatriation of the troops or the troops coming home? Do you remember what impact that had in the community?

What I found, there was great complaints, a lot of very decent women used to go down to the boat every day and greet these people, they were the only people that did. Nobody cared anything about them. And somebody said it wasn't for these women, they got no welcoming. As a matter of fact, I got a very strange welcome too. I hadn't seen my wife for 2 years and 8 months when I came back. The first thing she said to me, "Where'd you get that hat? " First thing she said to me, "Where'd you get that...." And when I went home, Joey was now about 3 or 3 or 4 years old and he was coming down the stairs and I said " Hi Joey dear I'm your dad." And he turned to mother, and say's "Dad's silly." So the receptions were very odd, you know. But definitely my wife was critical on me right away.