Stella: I’ve been in Gipton all my life. I was born on May 6th 1939. When my mother came out of hospital they were putting curtains up for the black out. My mother was a fire watcher. She wouldn’t take us down into the shelters. We had to go under the kitchen table. My sister saw my mother outside at the front. She thought it were the Germans coming to get us!

I don’t remember ever being hungry. Of course there was no such thing as snacks between meals then. And there was no choice. Whatever you were given you just ate.

During the war there were only two men left in our street. An engineer and a miner. All the husbands who’d gone to war came back. Except one. The one married to the lady next door. I can remember her being hysterical.

Josey: I was born in Beeston. I came to Gipton 50 years ago and met Stella at the baby clinic. We discovered we were both Catholics and went to St Nicholas Church. We started a Thursday club. We put on a full meal. Meat and veg and a pudding. But mainly it was a good social occasion. We had over 30 people for some time. We also had a Christmas Party. And we did trips out. Once Stella and I were in charge of the bus. We always counted. And this time we were sure we had counted. We’re fine, we thought. Let’s go. But suddenly there was this woman running alongside the bus banging on the window. We’d been told she wasn’t supposed to be able to walk, but there she was running full tilt after the bus.

We used to have the lunches in the Church hall. But they were open to anyone. Not just Catholics. But then we moved to having it in the Church. So some people stopped coming. There was still prejudice against Catholics. They thought we were strange. It was catlights and proddy dogs.

Stella: But the local C of E Church, the Epiphany, welcomed us Catholics, “them from over the road” to be in their pantomime. We so enjoyed it. I’d never have given it up if I hadn’t got so deaf. I’ll always remember them hats we wore in Aladdin. It was a standing joke that every Panto me and Josie would come on as cleaners. And complain that yet again the C of E had given the dirty jobs to the Catholics.

Josie: One year I had to ring this bell and the clanger came out. So I adlibbed and I said: “That’s another clanger the Catholics have dropped!”

Stella: I think the best one we did were Oliver. One of the local teachers played Bill Sykes. When he came on in the show with his hair cropped and a beard, the kids couldn’t believe it was their teacher.

Josie and I came on as milk maids. Carrying milk churns on that wooden bar-like thing they had. Well I had all my family in audience and they were laughing so much Josie and I were laughing too, so much so that we couldn’t start our song.