GRANDPARENT PROJECT

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WORLD OR NATIONAL EVENTS

Papa's childhood was impacted by the effects of World War 2.  His father had been a soldier in the Middle East and often at meal-times, his conversation would drift towards what he did in the War.

Great Grandfather William is in the front row with his legs crossed.

There were also reminders of the recent war from bombed out areas in Glasgow, the television documentaries about the war and from films that were being made about the war too.  This is an old photograph of Clydebank after it had been bombed.

Polish refugees had come to live in the village where Papa lived, and although he may not have known deeply about what and where they had come from, their presence, foreign language and label reminded him again and again of the recent war.

Although World War 2 officially ended in 1945, the world that Papa lived in during his childhood and teens after the War was a very divided world.

This world saw the raising of the Iron Curtain, The Cold War and The Berlin Wall.  This world remained a divided world until the end of the Cold War in 1991.

The Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War 2 in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991.  The Iron Curtain was a term symbolizing the efforts by the Soviet Union (Russia and its satellite states) to block itself from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas.

Physically, the Iron Curtain took the form of border defenses between the countries of Europe in the middle of the continent.  The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its Checkpoint Charlie which served as a symbol of the Curtain as a whole.

The Cold War
From 1947 to 1991 extreme tensions existed between The Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc (see extract from Wikipedia below).  These tensions became known as The Cold War. 

The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states) and powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others). Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine (a U.S. foreign policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism) was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed.

The term 'Cold' War was used because there was no large-scale fighting between the two Blocs.  

When Papa was thirteen, in October 1962 there was a major confrontation between these two blocs. This became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.  This confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.  

Here's a cartoon depicting the President Kennedy of the USA and Mr Khrushchev saying to each other "You take away your bombs!" and the other one saying "YOU take away YOUR bombs!"  Fortunately the two came to an agreement and the crisis ended.

Here is a photograph of people breaking down the Berlin War in 1989.

Your mummy was living in Glasgow at the time this happened and everyone was so excited because it meant that people who had been separated for years could finally be reunited.  On the day that the removal of the wall became official, Auntie Emma went to school and her history teacher told the class to take out their history books.  "Open to a fresh page and write today's date on the page." she said.  "Now write this down!  'Today the Berlin Wall came down.'"

Another political event which occurred during this period of Papa's life was the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.  Everyone who lived through that day can always remember where they were and what they were doing when it happened.  It was so sad.

Although there was a lot of tension in the world during this time Papa wasn't hiding under his blankets worrying about everything.  It was background noise to Papa's life but gives you an idea of the world he was living in at that time.