Museum Notebook: Elaine Little reminisces on Whanganui life during World War II

The Royal Whanganui Opera House, where shows were rehearsed during lunch hours and performed weekly to help raise money for the Mayor's Relief Fund for local families. Photograph: FH Bethwaite, 1939. Whanganui Regional Museum Collection Ref: 2005.56.65

Whanganui people are known for their community spirit and "can-do" attitudes.

This was particularly noticeable during the years of both World Wars, when the community pulled together to help fundraise, support each other and defend the city if necessary.

During a reminiscence held in the Whanganui Regional Museum Archives, Elaine Little recalled some of the happenings in the community during World War II.

A fund called the 'Mayor's Relief Fund' was available to help needy families. One of the ways to raise funds was by having weekly concerts in the Wanganui Opera House. A group of men would perform a dancing item. Practices were held during lunch hours and after work in a studio run by two sisters, originally from Wellington and then Auckland, who went by the name of The Wright Sisters.

Costumes were made from the cheapest possible materials. Wives' frocks were adapted for the occasion, and many a boater hat was fashioned from painted cardboard. These were also made during lunchtime or after work.

The Wright Sisters' studio was above what is now the Investment Store in Victoria Avenue. The sisters would devise the routines - the men would learn the steps on their highly-polished studio floor.

One particular night when they went out onto the stage at the Opera House, they found it was covered with rubber matting. Of course, their feet would not slide on this as they had been taught, and everyone went to pieces. They brought the house down with their antics and had everyone clamouring for more. Having no other item rehearsed, they returned to the stage for a repeat performance amid much laughter and cheering.

My father always tells of how he sat on his partner's knee and murmured, "You are a handsome bloke, George", to which Dr George Adams replied, "Shut up Jack! I can't do it right for laughing."

Wanganui Home Guard outside the Sarjeant Art Gallery. The Home Guard did their best to keep the town safe, despite a lack of weapons. They developed some good friendships along the way. Photographer: C F Newham & Co, 1939-1945. Whanganui Regional Museum Collection Ref: 2015.40.1

Also, during these years, Father was a member of the Home Guard and would be called out to practice often at Castlecliff.

He was a member of the Ambulance Section, and supplies were mostly stored in the car garage of a private home. In one garage, you were always guaranteed to find a "cuppa tea" going and could have a good chat to fill in the time.

It became - and we realise that it should not have been treated that way - a joke when they were told that the Germans had landed and they needed to march. These men did not even have weapons with which to protect themselves and the people of Whanganui. It just became a social outing.

Father always had a soft spot for children, and no child that ever came into his optical practice went away empty-handed. All the pennies from his pocket went onto a shelf in his little workshop, and the children, with their parents' permission, would go away with money for an icecream or some lollies.

• Sandi Black is the archivist at Whanganui Regional Museum.