大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Oxford 大象传媒/CSV on behalf of Rita Langley and has been added to this site with her permission. Rita Langley fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

PEOPLE IN STORY: Rita Langley nee Parker
LOCATION OF STORY: Reading
MAIN AREA OF INTEREST: Childhood, Domestic Life
TITLE: IT WAS A VERY PECULIAR TIME

Rita has vivid memories of the war years, it was a busy time for her household. Her mother never faltered during this time, her husband and son were away fighting, she had to make ends meet, provide food and clothing and generally support a young family. Rita feels she coped superbly and is full of admiration for her, and has given her recollections of the war as a tribute to her.

Rita was 4 in 1939, 10 by the end of the war. She lived in Reading, where her father worked as a painter and decorator but in 1939 he was called up into the army. He was reported missing on the beaches at Dunkirk, but later her mother, pregnant with Rita鈥檚 younger sister, was told he was safe as he had got on a different boat. When he eventually came home he was able to do some fire watching, and later in the war Rita remembers her mother taking them to Nottingham and leaving them on a poultry farm so they could see their father, who was stationed in the area. He never fully recovered his health after the war and died of lung cancer in 1947.

In 1939 her brother was 14, so he had to wait until he was 18 before he was called up into the Navy where he worked on a motor torpedo, doing radar. To him it was all an adventure. He and his mates, in their uniform, would arrive at his mum鈥檚 house, bringing lots of presents with them, especially those in the merchant navy.

Rita vividly remembers the electric atmosphere when these two came home on leave, her brother with a knapsack on his back, her father with presents.

Living in Reading the family did not experience much bombing, but they did have evacuees. First of all they had two ladies from Wandsworth who decided to return to London and brave the bombs. After that they had the children of London taxi drivers, who were able to provide the family with food from the black market.

The school was at the end of the road, and the children in the road practised responding to the air raid sirens. They would finish at school, go home, have tea, and then come back for the practice. Rita remembers the People鈥檚 Pantry and also pressing against the wall when the gasometer near the railway was bombed. It was, Rita says, a most peculiar time.

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