Transcript
Phyllis: Well, speaking about blackouts, my mum was an NES warden for our street at Hillard Street, Lakemba. And it was her duty when they had these organised blackouts, it was her duty to patrol the street, see that there was no light shining through anywhere in the house. So that was her role in the war.
I also had a brother and a sister in the war as well. My brother was in the army, of course, and he was in the armoured division over at Western Australia. And then my sister worked in the same post office as I did. So, we both, we were both together in the post office, right. And I had a younger brother and sister, but they were too young. They were only 14 and 11. But the rest of us were all in, even mum doing her share. And then mum used to, of a daytime, she used to make the camouflage nets. So, she really did her, she wasn't in uniform, only the NES white uniform but as far as being in the services you could say she was in the services because she did her role as well.
I used to come home on leave and see this big camouflage net hanging off the ceiling, all hooks up around the architrave area and this big net hanging down the wall half still with the shuttle hanging in it ready to continue. I used to look at that net. That's a wonderful thing. And I used to wonder if it shaded my Jim's ... You never know.
Speaker 2: You never know, but there's always a possibility.
Phyllis: That's right. Because they'll have had camouflage and that's all over their ammunition. Half a mind if she sat there making net and was covering Jim. No, she was very conscientious. She did her role. She might not have been in a uniform, but she was doing her job.