Helen Love

Our Mum And Dad

Album: Day-Glo Dreams [2013]
Author: Helen Jones © Elefant Publishing

Our mum and dad, they look straight down the lens

In funny flared trousers on the banks of the Thames

On holiday June 75

 

They met in a youth club by the stadium gates

Dad built new houses for George Wimpey Estates

That's where he first learnt his trade

 

And his hands were full of blisters blood and dirt

And his life was set in love and faith and work

 

Our mum I see her outside the school gates

Looking all anxious if we come out too late

Oh to have her arms around me now!

 

She worked part-time, 3 days a week at the bank

Saving us bottle tops and Green Shield stamps

That damn Ted Heath he don’t understand

 

I can see you hanging washing on the line

I can hear your laughter every Christmas time

 

Our mum and dad they turned older and grey

I watched Margaret Thatcher take their jobs away

Our mum said she could try the patience of a Saint

 

The 90s flew by and dad moved to his chair

Mum left the choir, as  she couldn't get there

And nobody came to the house

 

And we pin our hopes on things that are so frail

We try so hard but fabulously fail...