|
 | |  | |
Patricia Bridgen Farley was a Wren (Womens Royal Naval Service) stationed at Portkil, Near Kilcreggan, Scotland during World War II, living in a house affectionately known to the group of Wrens that were based there as 'The Barn'. The Wrens came to be known as the 'Barnites'.
During my three and half years at Portkil, our group's complement remained steady - around eight or nine Wrens, although there were always some transfers and other changes to be expected in a military operation. But there always had to be a cook, a vital part of the outfit.
The first cook I met when I was posted to the out-of-the-way Wren station was a dour, pragmatic Scottish woman in her mid to late thirties. I never called her by her given name, Agnes. She insisted on the naval tradition of using surnames. So, MacDuff is what I called her until her transfer.
At the beginning of our acquaintance, I was rather in awe of this stern female. Then, I found out that she was a wonderful seamstress and would willingly sew on buttons or hem skirts for any of us.
In fact, she taught me how to iron. I know that sounds rather preposterous but I had never learned to iron my own clothes. At home until the war, my mother employed a laundress who came to the house on Mondays to wash the clothes in a huge boiler in the cellar, using a hand-turned wringer to squeeze out the water. On Tuesdays, this same woman would reappear to do the ironing.
We Wrens always hand-washed our 'smalls', underwear, that is. But the naval launch would pick up our dirty laundry - mostly white and blue shirts - when it delivered the week's rations, bringing them back the following week.
There were times, however, when you needed a clean shirt for a dance or date. MacDuff taught me how to iron a shirt the correct way, a skill of which I am still proud.
| |  | |  |
To add a comment you must first login or join for free, up in the top left corner.
|
|
