Real-life stories: wartime children and African safaris
Christine Reason, a wartime child of WW2, twice evacuated, then on to romance, marriage and self-employment. 1930 to 2019. Working for the British Government on African Safaris in the 1950s and 1960s.Fires in caravans, crawling caterpillars in a line, a dog in a bar likes a tipple, marbles as gifts, no brakes on a cliff…
[1] 1922 to 1930 my story Christine Reason
The bridegroom had been in the Army in WW1, serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a stretcher bearer over in France. The bride was the second daughter of Rev. John Haydon and Elizabeth, his wife (nee Batchelor). My story begins at my date of birth…
[2] 1931 to 1935 real life toddler story
Continuing my real life story, some time in 1934, my parents and I moved to Woodford Green, and my father purchased a house there at 47 Parkland Road. I think that the price paid was £700. Whether he ever re-couped this amount, I cannot say, as we only lived there for approximately five years to…
[3] 1935 to 1937 Daddy’s office
Continuing my real life toddler story, there used to be a man selling sweets from a barrow outside the school, and I used to look enviously at some of the children who were allowed to purchase the Sherbet Dips, Liquorice Whirls and boiled sweets (all unwrapped)…
[21] 1988 to 1992 building a kit car
After moving to Newton Flotman near Norwich we went to Norway with Roy’s brother, Ted Reason, which was to become our last holiday with him. Also in 1989 our son, Peter, bought a Midas Gold kit car and because he had no garage, we said he could use ours.It was based on reconditioned mini engine…
[4] 1936 to 1938 pre-war story
In my pre-war story, my mother and I often used to walk to the railway station at Woodford to meet my father off the train in the early evening. I remember all the men (hardly any women) alighting on to the platform wearing their bowler or trilby hats, and carrying rolled up umbrellas and briefcases…
[5] 1939 my story – war declared
Yes this was my real life story 1939. A few weeks before the outbreak of hostilities during the summer holidays, my Mother and I left London, never to return, and travelled to Buckinghamshire to stay with my Haydon grandparents, and so that I could be a bridesmaid for my Aunt Edna’s Wedding to Robert Brown…
[6] 1939 to 1940 evacuated to south coast
In my real life story, after the September 1939 wedding, we did not return to Woodford, supposedly because of the threat of the German Luftwaffe bombing London, and I was sent down to Rye in Sussex to live with my Aunt Rene and Uncle Arch by myself. They were childless at this time…
[20] 1977 to 1987 working in Aladdin’s cave
We had a very happy life at Ardleigh, attending St. John’s Anglican church in Colchester, but by 1980, profits in horticulture had started to fall, owing to the quantities of Dutch produce flooding the markets, so we decided to look for another business, perhaps in retailing….
[18] 1961 to 1970 field found by Providence
To continue my real life story 1961, in February, my Father, who had been very ill with a duodenal ulcer, had survived an experimental operation to by-pass part of his duodenum, sadly died less than a year later, aged 65 years. Peter grew up on the small-holding, and became friends with Paul Austin, whose parents…
[16] 1955 to 1956 baby boy
Real life story 1955, our first home at Terling was a new Council House, but we left after seven months, as the market garden could not support another family, as by this time I was pregnant, and Roy got the job as Manager at Harry Church’s Nursery at Witham, just a few miles away…
[17] 1957 to 1960 I’m not rearing pigs!
Continuing my real life story 1957, Roy had always wanted to be self-employed, so he applied to the L.S.A. (Land Settlement Association) for a smallholding at Lawford, near Manningtree, Essex, and we moved there in November 1957. We had a financial struggle at first, as we had to put down a deposit and then pay…
[19] 1972 to 1976 Peter’s first job
We eventually moved in the summer of 1972. Roy had to lay a concrete roadway, erect a large packing shed which he bought second-hand, and a smaller shed to house the second-hand tomato grader…
[15] 1951 to 1955 wedding day
Continuing my real life story 1951 … of course we were on our own when Roy saw me home after the meal at their cottage, but in the two years we were courting, we only went out to a cinema three times, as the only bus from Terling into Chelmsford…
[14] 1951 to 1953 romantic manure
In my real life story 1951 after Roy fetched the Chrysanths, he said to me “I am soon going home to jam sandwiches and Beethoven”. So I realised that, like me, he loved classical music, and it was definitely love at first sight! It was very difficult for us to meet on our own…
[13] 1949 to 1951 boyfriends
In my real life story 1949, Stanley kept coming into the Library while I was working, and I used to be filling the shelves up with returned books, and he used to pop his head round the corner of the bookcases! Eventually, this wore me down so I agreed to go out with him…
[12] 1947 to 1948 Essex girl
As a group, we did Folk Dancing, and I was quite attracted to him. In my real life story 1947 one day a visit was arranged to go to Cecil Sharp House in London. Sharp was a founder of the English Folk Song Society, and as a group we used to sing Folk Songs, including…
[11] 1946 new mum – my story
In my real life story 1946 I was still attending the High School when my Mother died in January 1946, and I moved out of my Grandparents’ home, and went to live with Aunt Edna and Uncle Bob…
