For some reason I awaken thinking of the song “White Cliffs of Dover,” without knowing why. I didn’t even remember the words, of course, just the melody and “white cliffs of Dover.”
Did Nat Turner, American who wrote the lyrics, know there are no bluebirds in England, or did he mean the blue-undercoating of the British fighter planes? Who was he and why is there no information about him?
I must have heard that song many times in my childhood, perhaps Glenn Miller’s version, the Vera Lynn version. Reminded me that Dad watched all the Victory at Sea episodes. – were they shown Sunday afternoons? I look it up — yes, began Sunday afternoons October 26, 1952 with “timeless film, soaring music.”
During this pandemic when we think it is so difficult, it reminds me of my parents as young people living through an unspeakable Depression, then WWII where they lost brothers, husbands, women mostly at home (but not all!) going to work, living back with family, food deprivation, gas rations, not knowing if or when it would ever end,
As children in the 50’s we could not imagine the horrors our parents had lived through. We could listen to big band music and Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, enjoy the new invention of television, be part of all the other young families trying to begin new lives after the war.
Today I give thanks,
For all the music I heard,
For love and new hope.
Dad was a great one,
Humble but still looking up,
Even in his grief.
How grateful am I,
For the parents I loved so,
For all they gave us.
Click to hear
Vera Lynn singing her famous version
Light and Dark: Riding the Waves 