Doug Richards
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Transcript
00:00:01 Intro
00:00:33 Doug is 7 years old when war breaks out; Doug recalls the "Tu'penny Rush" and the popularity of cinemas in Pontypridd
00:03:45 Remembering the wartime public information posters; wartime food shortages and only encountering bananas and oranges when the war was over
00:05:37 A childhood spent outdoors and on the mountain; childhood games; playing in the blackout
00:07:07 A childhood perception of the news made the war sound exciting
00:08:34 Bombs dropped in the Hopkinstown/Pontypridd area
00:10:30 Doug’s family situation; the workload of his mother while his father was away; his father’s military service mostly as a prison guard; his father’s stories of New York and experience of segregation there
00:13:40 A mention of East Glamorgan Hospital; the GIs stationed in Hopkinstown; some Americans’ first experience of snow; GI integration into the area; children running errands for the GIs
00:17:32 Memories of his father coming home on leave and returning to the army; a moving interaction as he makes a commitment to his father to look after his mother while his father is absent
00:19:28 Spitfire fundraising drives; the children visit a German Heinkel bomber on display in Taff Vale Park; the emotional distance of fathers of that generation
00:21:46 Doug’s father only became involved in coal production after the war was over, working at the "top" at Ty Mawr Colliery in Hopkinstown, where Doug started himself in 1950; Doug does his National Service in Korea
00:23:05 Evacuees, mostly from London, in the area
00:24:39 Doug can still remember and recounts his father's army number
00:25:22 Outro