EXTRACT
MIDNIGHT AGAIN
Below are extracts from Midnight Again, which is a selection of the alert and animated letters that Helen Ramsey Turtle wrote back to her family in Denver, Colorado, during the Second World War. The letters home kept her American family abreast of her domestic life in Belfast and on Mahee Island, Strangford Lough. And abreast, too, of the conduct of the war on the home front as well as the European front: its impact on everyday life. As an American liberal pacifist, she was converted to the cause of war and hoped her country would join the war against itler’s Germany. 5th October, 1939 I’m trying to think what would be of interest to you from our ‘ Home-Front’. Half the people are furious with America for not coming in and think that if America had come in earlier, there would have been no war, and half don’t blame her 31st October, 1939 There is a variety of opinion as to what to do in an air raid - I think that the A.R.P . advises rolling yourself in a blanket and lying against an inside wall away from any windows with your gas mask on and a pencil between your teeth to keep your ear drums from getting the shock of noise or something like that - what a picture! 11th January, 1940 ...As for us, we’re getting along famously - this war makes you value what you have so much more than normally, that it gives that zeal to life that you only get in times of stress and probably impending catastrophe.
20th August, 1939 This week should decide whether there will be a war or no. It is awful to have that big black cloud always hanging over us and to feel this awful insecurity from year to year... 24th August, 1939 It certainly looks black tonight and by the time this reaches you heaven knows what will have happened... We have been hanging on the radio all day - now it is 11.30 and things look worse than ever. 4th September, 1939 So far the war has made no difference to us apart from blacking out our house and car lights. Everytime I seriously think about it I can’t believe it, and it makes me clear sick to think about it. I can’t imagine anyone I know having to drop bombs or fight anyone We haven’t decided where to live - Mahee is obviously safer but if petrol is limited and food is very much rationed, we will be cut off not only from supplies but from our friends I am beginning to think that our peace of mind here at Mahee will be worth the loneliness and inconvenience because we are so near the airport in Belfast that those constant planes would have us jittery day and night - however, we can only wait and see. Time will tell and meanwhile we live from day to day - we have no future... International marriages have their disadvantages, but this is the biggest drawback yet.
30th July, 1940 Every time I go to town I notice a) how crowded it is; b) how full of military of all kinds; c) how many wives and kids of military are here. orries, motor bikes, camouflaged army cars of all kinds pour through the streets and the sidewalks are stiff with men in uniform. Also, there are public shelters being put up every place. There are two huge ones in D onegall P lace - one across from R[ obinson] and leavers and one outside the arlton January, 1941 veryone is cheered up over the Italian flop in Greece and Egypt but everyone expects an invasion “in the spring”, which means from February on. The mere thought of it gives me chills and fever because I know how scared I would be. Everyone is saying that Hitler will probably do his worst to crush England this year - and the opinion on gas is divided between those who think it will come with the total war of the invasion and those who think that Hitler will only use gas if he sees that it is a question of one last fling or failure. February, 1941 J ust in the past 3 or 4 weeks food has been gradually disappearing - bananas, grapefruit, onions, spaghetti, jam and marmalade, oranges, lemons, chocolate, sweets of all kinds, biscuits, tinned things of all kinds, packets of jellies, etc. are going, going, gone. And the meat ration is 1/ 2d per person... butter 2oz. a week, sugar 4 oz., tea 2 oz., bacon (about 2 strips each), margarine 4 oz., chickens are each ggs are still nearly a do en 111
However, despite all these snags, we are as happy as kings with the garden full of snowdrops, Spring around the corner and the daylight until nearly o’clock One of the big advantages of country life is this next-to-nature move that makes us appreciate every rag of sun, every bird that sings, not to mention the bees and the trees. 6th May, 1941 You’d never guess what we have in the house tonight! 5 evacuees. I picked them up walking along the road from Comber with their little bundles. These people weren’t bombed out but are just scared out. N ot a single person on their street is living there any longer - they have just left their houses and fled and go back in the daytime. I asked a censor about what is allowed to be reported about a raid, so I hope I can get an account over to you which is harmless and won’t give away any secrets. The papers and the BBC described it as a “vicious attack” and vicious is just the word for it Anything like the sound of the bombs dropping can’t be translated into words - you have to hear it to get the full force of the awfulness of it. 23rd December, 1941 Subtly and gradually, England especially and Ireland incidentally have become so socialistic. Maids are gone in Eng. Big cars are out of sight, dukes and earls ride in Baby Austins or walk or take the train, anyone with a car gives lifts to anyone walking, there can be no ostentation of dress or food or entertaining and most noticeable of all is the spirit ire is more jittery than ever since America has come in. They have no coal and no candles and no para n oil for lamps and no petrol. The train services are awful and the passengers have to get out at peat bogs and help gather peat to stoke the engine. 3rd May, 1945 How near we are to V .E. D ay you will know when you get this. I think it will be today or tomorrow. I am going straight from here to buy the biggest American flag I can find our English one is at Mahee - we will get it on Saturday Gay and ulie are worked up to fever pitch - they rush down to read the headlines every morning and have been very interested in the paper since they started guessing how many miles the Russians were from Berlin...
Midnight Again is available online at The Blackstaff Press and Amazon, and at No Alibis Bookstore and Waterstones, Belfast.
